The Chronicles of ZFRR
by Xjentryn
Summary: Follow team ZFRR (Zaffre) along with their fellow students at Storm Academy as they train in the hopes of becoming the best huntsmen and huntresses of their generation.
1. New Beginnings

Hello readers! I'm Xjentryn and this is the first chapter of my new story. My good friend Black Fuego has written a wonderful fanfic of RWBY called **The BLAD of RWBY and JNPR**. This here is my RWBY fanfic taking place in the same universe. As such, there will be plenty of carry-over ideas and characters, and the stories will potentially intersect a few times. I hope you all enjoy reading this, **The Chronicles of ZFRR.**

(Note: I will be throwing in references to some of my other fandoms. They will not be marked, but they are there as a salute to those fandoms.)

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, or any other fandom referenced. I only claim the original ideas and characters in here. And this brownie, this brownie is mine.

"Talking"

"_Thinking"_

_Memory_

**Sound effect**

"~Singing~"

Out in a park in the middle of Ithalese City, a little blue-haired five-year-old boy was playing with a ball. He kicked it across the grass; it spun a bit to the side and hit a tree. As the toddler walked over to it, a couple big kids standing there picked it up.

"Nice ball twerp." One of them said.

"Thanks. Can I have it back?" The blue-haired boy asked innocently.

The older boys laughed. "I don't think so kid. Now run along and suck your thumb."

The little youngster began to get mad. "It's my ball! Now give it back you big stupid face!"

The older boy glared at him. "What was that twerp?" He shoved the toddler down. "You want this ball? Go get it." He dropped it and kicked it hard. The ball began to soar away, but was stopped suddenly. A little blonde-haired five year old monkey Faunus hung from the tree with the ball in his hands.

"Here" He said, dropping the ball to the blue-haired boy.

"Beat it you filthy animal!" The older boy shouted.

The blonde monkey smiled. "That's not very nice." He jumped down onto the older boy's shoulders.

"What the!"

The little boy reached down the big boy's back and grabbed his underwear. He pulled upward swiftly, and then jumped off.

"YOU LITTLE BRAT!" The older boy shouted. He lunged at the five year old who dodged under the older boy's legs and gave him a swift kick to the butt.

"RRAAAA!" The older boy turned around and grabbed the little blonde boy by the shirt. "TAKE THIS TWERP!" He held one hand back, clenched in a fist. He threw a punch at the toddler's face with all his might, but his fist was caught by a tall man.

"Put him down." The man said in a stern tone, twisting the boy's fist. "Nicely."

The older boy reluctantly complied.

"Now you and your friends get out of here before I call the cops."

The boy glared, but obeyed nonetheless. The man turned toward the blue-haired boy. "You okay Scooter?" The young boy nodded. The man turned to the blonde boy. "How about you?" He nodded as well, a big grin on his face. "You helped out my son, thank you." The man said gratefully.

The blue-haired boy stood up and turned to his rescuer. "Thanks. I'm Zaffre."

The Blonde boy smiled at him. "I'm Rusty." He said. The two shook hands, and a friendship was born.

– **12 years later –**

Zaffre took in a deep breath. He was finally here. Looking around, he awed at the sight of what would be his home for the next few years. Around him, other new students shuffled in, many of them also entranced by the sight. This was Storm Academy; a somewhat less-known school as it had only been around for about 7 years. Never the less, it had the reputation of being every bit as good as Beacon.

"_Its gonna be a good 4 years."_ He thought.

The now 17-year-old Zaffre was dressed in a long-sleeved silver shirt with a blue tunic on top. The tunic was sleeveless with stiff pointed shoulders, and was covered in faint gold embroidery. He also wore deep blue pants with a brown belt and brown boots. His hands were covered by metal gloves that extended halfway up his forearms, and a vial of blue dust suspended by a simple chain necklace around his neck was tucked into his tunic. His hair was the same blue spikey mess it had always been; only now it was a bit longer. He also now had two swords in the rough shape of katanas without the blade curve on his back.

Looking over, he noticed his blonde friend had disappeared from his side, and was now on a low branch of a nearby tree. Zaffre walked over to him.

Rusty's short, dirty blonde hair was a mess on his head, as per usual. He wore a sleeveless golden orange vest that well showed off the flaming banana emblem tattooed on his left bicep, a sweatshirt of the same color tied loosely around his neck, a simple pair of blue jeans without a belt, and white pads located on his knees, elbows, and shoulders. He had a monkey tail that sat as the sole external indicator that he was a Faunus, and blue/gray lines under his eyes that were almost tribal in appearance. On his feet he wore simple sneakers. While at one point they had been fairly close in color to his shirt, days of dirt and mud had darkened them a good deal. A silver cylinder rested horizontally along the back of his waist.

"Rusty, what are you doing?" Zaffre asked, almost not wanting to know.

"Formulating a plan of attack." Rusty replied, without even looking at his friend. "There appear to be a lot of them here."

"Oh really?" Asked Zaffre, pretending to be more interested than he was. "And might I inquire as to who 'them' are?"

Rusty snapped his head to face Zaffre, with a shocked look on his face. "Who do you think?" He said, looking back away from Zaffre. "All the targets."

"mhm." Zaffre smirked. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the technical name for them is girls. And I don't see how hiding in a tree is a plan to get one."

Rusty sighed. "If I must explain, I wait for a nice specimen to come near. Then I 'fall' and 'hurt my leg'. Their sympathy does the rest."

"Really?" Asked Zaffre. "A monkey fell off of a 7 foot high tree branch and hurt himself?"

Rusty turned to glare at Zaffre for a second, and then grinned. "Watch and learn my friend."

As a couple girls started to walk by, Rusty "fell" off the branch and landed in front of them.

"Oof, sorry ladies." He said from the ground. "Guess I slipped."

"Oh. Are you okay?" Asked a red-haired girl, with two dog-like ears sticking out on top of her head.

Rusty stood up and brushed himself off. "I think so, no broken bones." He smiled at the girl.

"_There is no way this is gonna work."_ Thought Zaffre.

The girl smiled back. "That's a relief, I hear those short falls can be really dangerous."

"Yeah well, ow!" Rusty shifted his weight to his right foot, then pretended it hurt. "I think I twisted my ankle. Would you be willing to help me get to a bench?"

"Why sure." Said the girl. "Why don't you just put your arm around me, and we'll take a nice, slow walk." She then leaned in close. "I don't need a coyote's nose to smell this load of crap." She and her friend walked off laughing.

"Wow." Said Zaffre, clapping sarcastically. "First day and you've already been rejected and laughed at. Please teach me your ways oh wise master."

"Ha ha, laugh it up." Responded Rusty. He looked toward where the girl had gone. "She's a feisty one. I'll be seeing her again." He said with a grin.

"Uh-huh, if you say so."

Rusty and Zaffre resumed walking with the crowd toward the main structure.

– **ZFRR –**

The students all funneled into a great hall. Stone pillars stood their guard along the sides, and a dome roof capped the building. The room was mostly empty, expect for a stage against the far wall. A man stood on the stage, his hands behind his back, observing the students. He was dressed in a midnight blue vest and dress pants of the same color with a very pale blue under shirt. On top was a blueish/purple overcoat with a matching bowtie. He had short, dark brown hair sitting neatly on his head, and brown dress shoes at his feet. As the last of the students entered the building, he stepped forward.

"Welcome all." He announced. "I am Professor Augustus Caesar, and this is Storm Academy!"

He smiled as light applause rose from the crowd.

"Here you will be trained to be the best Huntsmen and Huntresses you can be. To protect peace, and defend those who cannot defend themselves. As you all know, our world is experiencing a time of peace and prosperity. But nothing lasts forever. It is your job to uphold the peace as long as can be, and restore it should it ever fall. I believe that each and every one of you has the capability to do this, and it is our job to help you get there. Study hard, and train well, and you will be magnificent!"

He nodded his head and stepped back. The room erupted with applause. A woman walked up on stage, and stepped to the mic. She had lightly tanned skin, and long brown hair kept in a bun. She wore an orange and pink swirled dress that came down to just above her knees, and had sleeves that covered half her biceps. The collar of a brown undershirt popped over the top of it. She wore Light brown boots on her feet, and a golden bracelet on her left hand.

"Thank you Headmaster." She said. "I am Professor Clarice Morningstar. Tomorrow you will begin your initiation, and your journey will start. For now, I encourage you to look around and familiarize yourself with our campus. A directory can be found outside. You will meet back here for the night, and tomorrow's proceedings will begin at 9 am sharp."

With that, she stepped back, and the students began to disperse.

"Initiation huh, wonder what that entails." Pondered Rusty.

"I've heard the students at Beacon have to collect relics in a Grimm-filled forest." Replied Zaffre. "Maybe we'll be doing something similar."

The two walked outside. Per Zaffre's insistence, they took a look at the directory. Both boys loved to explore, but Zaffre had a terrible sense of direction, and Rusty liked getting lost, so having a general idea of their bearings was always a smart decision.

Most students headed towards the dorms and food hall, wanting to know where they'd be sleeping and eating. Rusty and Zaffre decided to take a less crowded path, and started walking a different direction through the campus, taking a look at everything they could see.

– **ZFRR –**

Zaffre and Rusty stood by a building in the middle of campus, looking around

"You have no idea where we are do you?" Asked Zaffre.

"No, I know exactly where we are." Replied Rusty. "I just don't know where everything else is."

Zaffre sighed. "We best pick a direction then."

"There's bound to be someone near we could ask."

"The great Rusty wants to ask for directions? I may die of shock!"

"I want food, and the sooner we get back, the sooner I get it."

Zaffre smiled. "Okay, now THAT sounds like you."

The pair began walking, having no idea where they were headed.

"I think it's a left here." Said Rusty. "Or maybe right?"

"You're sense of direction is certainly one of your finer qualities." Said Zaffre sarcastically.

"Look who's talking!"

It was true, they had never met anyone who had a worse sense of direction than Zaffre.

"Hey look." Said Zaffre. "There's someone."

Ahead was another student wearing a white hoodie, gray pants, and black shoes. The student had their hands in their pockets, and was facing away from the two. Said student also had their hood up, so gender was impossible to tell. As Zaffre and Rusty approached, Rusty called out. "Hey you!"

The student didn't budge.

Rusty ran up and tapped them on the shoulder. The student then turned around. They wore a black bandana across their nose and mouth, and had gold-lined gray goggles over their piercing green eyes. The student raised an eyebrow, as if to say 'what do you want'.

"Do you know which way to the food?" Asked Rusty.

The student turned and pulled their left hand out of their pocket, though it was still concealed by a light gray glove. The student pointed to Rusty's right.

"That way." The student said, revealing their gender to be male.

"Thanks a million dude!" Rusty exclaimed, before talking off running in the indicated direction.

The student resumed starring off in the direction he had been earlier.

"_Not much of a people person I see."_ Zaffre thought to himself. He shrugged and chased after Rusty.

– **ZFRR –**

The boys had found their way back to the cafeteria quickly, and eagerly went in for some much-needed food. The cafeteria was fairly packed, but thankfully the line for food hadn't taken too long. Rusty managed to down 3 servings in almost no time, and was now table-hopping (not literally, thank goodness), hitting on every attractive girl he could find. So far he'd been slapped once, laughed at three times, and rejected a total of 6. But he didn't falter or lose faith after any of them. The current girl he was talking to seemed to actually be interested. Zaffre starting making bets with himself on how long it would be until Rusty screwed it up. Of course, Rusty wasn't a total failure when it came to girls. In fact he had had quite a bit of success in his endeavors before coming here. All the same though, his failures did seem to outweigh his victories. The girl began laughing at something Rusty said, and he turned and walked away, smiling gleefully.

"Finally got one?" Zaffre asked, curious to see how long it would take Rusty to get a date at Storm.

"Nope!" Rusty said gleefully. "Not yet anyway!"

"You have got to be the most cheery rejectee ever, of all time." Said Zaffre.

"Soon enough they'll want me." Rusty responded.

"If you say so."

"What about you? Why don't you try talking to a girl? Test your luck?" Rusty asked.

"I'm good." Said Zaffre.

Rusty shook his head. "C'mon man, you can't hang out in a shell forever. Besides, I already set the bar pretty low for you."

Zaffre chuckled. "That you did buddy. But you know that talking to girls isn't my thing."

"That's why you need practice." Rusty retorted. "What if you end up on a team with a girl? Or with only girls? Heck, what if you end up the leader of a team consisting of only you and really hot girls?"

Zaffre laughed. "I don't think that'll be a problem. I'm not leader material."

"Ok fine." Said Rusty. "What if you end up being the flunky on a team of really hot girls?"

Zaffre reached out and whacked Rusty. Rusty just grinned. Despite his flaws, Rusty was great at cheering Zaffre up, and giving him confidence in himself.

"Then I guess I'll turn to your wise ass for help." Zaffre said.

Rusty shrugged and sat down.

"One day man. One day you'll have to step outside of your comfort zone and go for it."

"I know." Sighed Zaffre.

Rusty suddenly smiled mischievously. "In fact, we'll start tonight."

"Oh joy." Zaffre said sarcastically. Zaffre did want to get better at talking to girls, but it was one of those things he just kept putting off.

Rusty looked around. "It's too quiet in here." He said.

Zaffre face-palmed. It was, in fact, quite noisy here. So Rusty's comment could only mean one thing. Rusty hopped up on the table, and grabbed a scoop of mashed potatoes with his tail.

"Rusty, please don't."

"Aiming."

"C'mon man, we just got here. Please refrain from getting in trouble just yet."

"Wait for it….." Rusty looked at Zaffre and grinned. "FIRE!" The potatoes launched into the air, spreading wide like a net. Zaffre felt time slow down as the mushy ammo sought out it's targets. Rusty's hand moved into a salute at the spectacle of his work. Slowly the white glop fell. Zaffre swore he saw a tear in Rusty's eye as the squishy missiles struck home. A couple tables over, about five students starting freaking out at the unexpected shower they had received.

Rusty raised his hands in the air. "WOO! SCORE!" He shouted.

One of the students he had hit stood up and shouted, "Get him!"

Five blobs of food came hurdling at Rusty. He crouched and sprang up, doing a flip over the airborne arsenal, which proceeded to land on a group of girls behind him. The girls freaked out and started screaming, causing laughter amongst some nearby guys. One of the girls used this as an excuse to fling food at them, while Rusty's victims prepared a second assault wave. Within minutes the whole cafeteria was one big battleground. And Rusty was Hercules. Not a single drop of food hit him, though not for lack of trying. At least fifteen students were aiming specifically at him. Zaffre noticed that Rusty's attention seemed to be focused mainly in one direction. Following his gaze, Zaffre saw the same girl that Rusty had made laugh and walked away from not 10 minutes before. Rusty then turned to look a couple tables down. Again mimicking his friend, Zaffre noticed a guy aiming at said girl.

"_Is he gonna…"_ Zaffre's thoughts trailed off.

The guy launched his ammo of choice, chicken bits covered in barbeque sauce, at the girl. Rusty lunged into the shot's path, and got struck square in the chest. He fell back, landing in some kid's pudding. The girl covered her mouth in shock, a smile on her face. Half the cafeteria cheered, for the mighty warrior was down. Rusty simply stood up, a piece of the chicken in hand, and turned to the girl.

"I told you." He said, before taking a bite of chicken.

The girl laughed, and flung some fries at him. However, she then proceeded to pull out a piece of paper and write down what Zaffre could only assume was her phone number. She got up, handed it to Rusty, winked, and walked away. Ten guys gave Rusty a round of applause, while he held his fist high in victory, the girl's note in a tight grip. What he failed to notice was a certain dog-eared red head sitting a couple tables over, smiling and giving him a look of approval.

– **ZFRR –**

A young, dark-haired boy sat down at the empty end of a table in the cafeteria. He had a simple meal in front of him: a deli sandwich, a small salad without dressing, and a glass of water. After observing the people in the room, he had concluded that there was an 84% chance of some form of large-scale roughhouse occurring. So while the food options were many and tempting, he decided on the meal that he felt would make the least mess if it should end up on him. After all, getting stains out of his white hoodie was always a pain. The boy lifted the bandana across his face slightly, allowing his food to slide underneath. With any luck, he'd be able to finish before anything went down, but statistically that only had a 27% chance. At the table next to him, a blonde monkey Faunus walked up to a girl who was eating with her friends.

"Excuse me miss, but I couldn't help but notice that you are far too pretty for me to not know you."

The girl's friends starting giggling.

"_Well, somebody's feeling confident today."_ The black-haired boy thought. Glancing over, he noticed that it was the same boy who had asked him for directions to the cafeteria, despite it being visible at the time. It had honestly amazed him that a guy who seemed so intent on food wouldn't know the building it was served in. And he could tell that this guy was a food-lover. His whole demeanor just screamed it. _"A gluttonous, over-confident, extrovert. I'll be avoiding your team tomorrow."_ He thought.

The girl that the monkey-boy was hitting on was looking at said monkey with a smile. "Well, aren't you the confident one?" She said. "Are you always this forward?"

"When a princess like you comes along, I do whatever it takes."

The girl chuckled. "So this is a common thing is it?"

"Oh contraire mademoiselle. I can't say that I've ever met another on par with you."

"_This guy certainly knows what he's doing, gotta give him that much." _The boy in the white hoodie thought. _"He definitely seems to like risks. That princess comment had a 47% chance of blowing up in his face."_

The girl giggled a little, obviously thrilled.

"_Can't say much for her though. This boy's barely trying and he's got her. Hook, line and sinker. There's a 91% probability that he's getting a date."_

"You'll do anything huh?" She asked.

The boy got down on one knee. "For a date with you my lady, I would give up the title of Reigning Food Fight Champion."

The girl burst out laughing. The dark-haired boy laughed internally as well, though he showed no signs of it on the outside. _"That was unexpected."_ He thought.

The blonde monkey began walking away, a big grin on his face. The boy in the hoodie watched the blonde join his blue-haired friend, whom he also recognized from earlier. The dark-haired boy let out a sigh. _"Well, I know where this is going."_ He got up, disappointed that he had not been able to finish his meal, and began walking towards the door. As he stepped outside, he glanced back to see a shower of mashed potatoes landing on five boys. The dark-haired boy was impressed by such a shot coming from a tail. He stood there a moment, as a battle began, watching the monkey Hercules take out his foes. _"I recant my previous statement."_ He thought._ "This kid is going to make a good teammate."_ With that, he closed the door behind him.

– **ZFRR –**

Zaffre stood outside the headmaster's office, listening to the muffled sounds from within. Less than a minute after Rusty had won his prize, Professor Morningstar had shown up and escorted Rusty out. Zaffre had followed along, all the while receiving gleeful and victorious looks from Rusty. That boy was a determined little booger when it came to getting a date. Finally the door opened and Rusty stepped out.

"So how'd it go?" Asked Zaffre.

"Meh, he let me off with a warning." Answered Rusty honestly. "He said that since no one was hurt, and it was the first day, he'd let it slide. He just told me to keep my behavior in check from now on."

"I'm beginning to think no one from our previous school warned him about you." Said Zaffre.

"And here I thought my reputation was stronger than that."

Zaffre laughed. "You never were one to behave. Remember the turd incident?"

Rusty beamed. "Oh yeah! One of my finest moments!"

"Yeah, let's go with that."

The two walked for a while. The sun was still up, and looked to remain that way for another couple hours. Between getting lost, and the escort mission to the Headmaster, they had seen a decent amount of the campus. Now, they decided to walk through the woods. The teachers would have advised against it, but the were rarely Grimms here, and the two were more than capable of taking down any they did happen across.

"This forest is really quite beautiful." Zaffre commented.

"It's not bad, I prefer the city though." Responded Rusty.

Zaffre chuckled a little. "You always did seem to have a hard time enjoying the finer things."

"Hey, the finer they get, the more I enjoy them." Rusty joked.

Zaffre shook his head with a smile. "I'm not talking about women."

"Oh." Rusty said sheepishly "Never mind then."

"Sometimes I wish I lived in the forest." Zaffre said. "Get to be closer to nature."

"Wonderful idea, except you can't stand bugs." Said Rusty.

It was true; much as Zaffre liked the outdoors, he absolutely HATED creepy crawlies, especially spiders. Zaffre shuddered at the thought.

The two continued walking, enjoying the feel of the cool evening air. They walked for a good half hour, changing directions every so often. Finally they decided it was time to start heading back. Given that neither of them had any idea where they were, Rusty decided to get a higher view. He jumped up a nearby tree and swung himself up the branches. In less than a minute, he was at the top.

"See anything?" Asked Zaffre.

"Not yet, hold on though." Rusty replied.

Using his tail, he grabbed the silver cylinder from his waist and tossed it over his head. He grabbed it with his left hand. The cylinder was a good foot in diameter, but the center was smaller, handle sized. Once he grabbed it, the item extended until the two larger cylinders on the ends were each two feet long and the center handle was six feet long. Each end had a whole in it. Rusty planted on end firmly on the branch beneath him, the other end pointed straight up.

"Are you about to do what I think you are?" Shouted Zaffre.

"Yep!" Rusty cried gleefully. He fired an explosive round out the lower end, sending him flying into the air. At the peak of his jump, he looked around and pointed.

"That way to campus!" He shouted as he began his plummet back down.

Zaffre shook his head and smiled as he watched his friend come in for a landing. Rusty attempted to land gracefully on one of the branches, but unfortunately slipped on contact. He tumbled down into another branch, and accidentally fired his weapon again. The difference this time was, the staff was being held horizontally. Rusty was thrown off to the side, out of view.

"Rusty!" Zaffre called out in a panic, bolting towards where he'd been flung.

Zaffre burst out into a clearing, and saw his friend laying on his back in the middle of a bed of flowers.

"You okay man?" Zaffre asked.

"That was awesome." Rusty said in a whisper.

Zaffre sighed.

"You dork." He said. "Your overconfidence is going to be the death of you."

Rusty sat up. "But it will be an epic death." He retorted.

"I have no doubt about that." Said Zaffre, helping his friend up. He looked around the clearing. It was about the size of a football field in total, but the trees on any given part of the edge were fairly thick, making the clearing hard to spot from the outside. A little more than a third of one end was a small pond, with amazingly clear water. A few creeks trickled in and out of it. The rest of the clearing was very flat and grassy. Flowerbeds popping up all over the place.

"This place is beautiful." Zaffre said in awe. "It's so serene."

"The tree line makes it feel like a valley." Said Rusty, also looking around.

"I will definitely be coming back here again." Said Zaffre.

Rusty looked at his friend. "Well then, let's give it a name!" He chimed with a smile. "How about, Serena?"

Zaffre laughed. "Yeah, I don't feel like having you hit on a clearing." He said. He looked around, thinking about Rusty's comment about the tree line. After a moment of thought, he had the perfect name.

"Why don't we call it Serenity Valley?"

Rusty nodded in approval. "Serenity Valley it is!"

Zaffre took in a deep breath, letting the awesomeness of their find soak in.

"C'mon dude." He said after a minute. "We best be getting back."

Zaffre turned to the end away from the pond. "When you were in the air, you pointed this way."

"Well then." Rusty said. "After you my good man!"

– **ZFRR –**

Back on campus, a young girl sat on a bench outside. She wore a red, sleeveless, strapless top, and a loose ruffle skirt that stopped just above her knees. The top of the skirt was a deep pink, which faded to white as it went lower. Underneath the skirt was pair of moderately tight white shorts that covered just over half of her thighs. She wore maroon sandals with golden shin guards on her legs. Silver gauntlets extended from her wrists to her elbows, and golden, metal bands covered her biceps, each engraved with the emblem of a howling coyote. Around her neck was a golden necklace with three red jewels in it. Twin, tan coyote ears poked up out of her long, red hair, which was kept in a messy ponytail.

"_That was impressive."_ She thought to herself.

See had just witnessed quite the spectacle in the cafeteria. A boy had started a food war, and intentionally lost after kicking butt, just to get a date. She had bumped into him earlier, when he tried to hit on her by falling out of a tree. That attempt however, was far less impressive.

"_I never would have guessed that he had any real game after that. Now though…"_ She was honestly quite impressed. She herself loved spectacles and fun, and she hadn't stopped smiling since the food fight. Still thinking to herself, she failed to notice an excited-looking boy come up to her.

"Ahem." He said.

She snapped out of her train of thought and looked at him. "Oh, hi."

The boy blushed a little. "I'm sorry to bother you, but it's such an honor to get to meet you."

The girl stared at him with a puzzled look. "Huh?"

The boy blushed more. "I…I just…I really admire your work."

The girl was really confused now. "What are you…" She cut herself off, suddenly realizing what he was talking about. A smile began to creep up on her.

"Who do you think I am exactly?" She asked.

The boy responded. "Why, Pyrrha of course."

The girl burst out laughing. She couldn't believe she hadn't seen that coming, she was mistaken for the excellent warrior on many occasions.

"No no no. I'm Scarlet." She said

The boy became extremely embarrassed. "Oh…I…But…You…Resemblance."

Scarlet continued to laugh. She did, in fact, bear a remarkable resemblance to the redheaded warrior. And she was okay with it. Scarlet looked up to Pyrrha, even though she'd never met her in person. That fact that the resemblance was so close was purely coincidence, but Scarlet was always happy to hear others say it. It was fun to be the doppelganger of someone so famous and awesome.

The boy was still stuttering, struggling to form a coherent sentence.

"Well, it's very nice to meet you." She said, extending her hand.

The boy nervously accepted the shake. As he did, Scarlet winked at him. The boy completely lost it, babbling and backing up.

"I…Well…Stuff…I….Gotta…Things." He said nervously. Paling, he turned and bolted away.

Scarlet couldn't stop laughing. _"Oh yeah."_ She thought._ "This is gonna be a fun school!"_

She continued her laughing fit for a good few minutes before finally calming down. Timid boys were so much fun for her. She stood up, looking at the sky. The sun was showing signs of wanting to set soon. She breathed in deeply. The air was so refreshing. She crouched down, in a pre-race stance. Looking ahead, she saw a nice, open path through campus. With a grin, she took off running. It felt good, the release of energy.

"Woo-hoo!" She shouted, leaping in the air.

Scarlet loved running; it made her feel alive. Really, any kind of exercise would do. Scarlet had a LOT of energy. Part of it came from her being a coyote Faunus. But even that aside, she truly was a puppy at heart. Her parents often told her how impossible she was to keep up with when she was a toddler. It always made her laugh. Reminiscing about it, she failed to notice another girl step into her path.

**SMACK!**

The two collided head-on, knocking both girls on their respective butts. Scarlet sat dazed, stars dancing around her head.

"Hey! Watch it!" The other girl shouted. She wore a sleeveless top, the same bright red as Scarlet's, with blue jean shorts and purple and white sneakers. A purple button rested on the upper left of her shirt depicting a wing against the sun. She had a black, studded choke collar around her neck, and a pair of dangling, yellow star earrings. Her eyes shined a beautiful golden color, and a yellow flower sat in her short, purple hair. A scar traveled a short distance under her left eye.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Said Scarlet. "I forgot how fast I was going."

"Pfft! That was nothing." Said the other girl. "I could easily go faster than that!"

"Oh really?" Asked Scarlet, standing up. As the other girl stood up, Scarlet notice she had a large pair of eagle's wings. "Whoa." She said, amazed.

The other girl brushed herself off. "Try not to drool." She said.

"Oh don't worry." Said Scarlet. "Your face will prevent that!"

The other girl raised an eyebrow. "Yeah whatever. Just run along little wolf girl."

"I'm a coyote." Replied Scarlet. "And my name is Scarlet."

"And I'm Thistle, nice to meet you." Said the other girl. "Now go away."

Scarlet stuck her tongue out, turned, crouched, put her hands on the ground, kicked some dirt up, and took off.

Coughing, Thistle glared at the disappearing redhead. _"Amateur."_ She thought. _"This school deserves better."_

Scarlet continued to run. Eagle-brain hadn't been very much fun, but their were plenty of other new people to meet. _"And the fun begins!"_ She thought.

– **ZFRR –**

Zaffre and Rusty sat on their sleeping bags in the middle of the large hall from earlier, now in their pajamas. Zaffre wore a simple white t-shirt and blue shorts. Rusty wore another copper-colored vest, with matching shorts. They had returned to the hall about an hour ago, and spent most of the time since playing twenty questions.

"Can you eat it?" Asked Rusty

"Nope." Replied Zaffre. Then, with a grin, "Well, maybe YOU could."

"Does it sit on the floor?"

"Yes."

"Could I jump on it without breaking it?

"Yes."

"Is it very wide?"

"Yes."

"A couch?"

"Nope."

"Okay, I give up."

"Carpet dude." Zaffre smiled, Rusty wasn't generally very good at twenty questions, but they both still enjoyed playing.

When the two had initially come in, very few students had been here. By now, the hall was decently packed, as most students prepared to get some rest before initiation the next day.

Rusty looked around the room. "Looks like most people are back for the night."

"Looks that way." Said Zaffre.

A mischievous grin grew on Rusty's face.

"_Uh oh."_ Zaffre thought. "Do I want to know?"

"Do you recall what I said earlier?" Rusty asked.

Zaffre shrugged, having no idea. But then he noticed that Rusty was staring at a group of girls.

"Oh no." He said.

Rusty turned back to Zaffre, his smile growing. "Oh yes. Time for some practice!"

"Please don't make me do this." Zaffre begged.

"You know that if I don't, you'll later wish I had."

Zaffre sighed. He hated when Rusty used legitimate logic on him.

"Fine." He said in defeat. "Where do we start?"

Rusty's eyes cheered at Zaffre's surrender. "Easy, pick one."

Zaffre looked around. There were a fair number of girls around. Some attractive, some not. Some were reading, some were talking, some had already started to fall asleep, and some were just sitting there. In one particular spot, a group of 10 or so girls were staring dreamily at a green-haired boy who was reading. Rusty noticed this too.

"Some people have all the luck." He grumbled to himself. Then, turning to Zaffre, "Don't worry man, there're still plenty of others."

Zaffre continued to look around, no particular girl sticking out to him.

"I don't know dude." He sighed.

"Ok fine." Rusty said. "Let's start with that one!"

He gestured toward a random girl sitting against the wall. She sat by herself, listening to music through headphones. Zaffre reluctantly followed Rusty over to her. Rusty went right up and tapped her on the shoulder. She looked up at him, and pulled out one earphone.

"Can I help you with something?" She asked.

"Yeah." Answered Rusty. "Have you met a devilishly handsome and exceedingly funny guy with blue spikey hair?"

"I can't say that I have." She said with a slight laugh.

"Well now's your chance!" Rusty beamed. With that, Rusty jumped back and shoved Zaffre forward. Before stepping away, he leaned in and said, "He also save puppies from burning buildings." And just like that, Rusty was gone.

Zaffre took a deep breath. "Well, that was Rusty."

"He seemed friendly." The girl said. "If a little…odd."

"That's him in a nutshell." Zaffre said. He then mentally laughed at 'nutshell', as a dirty joke popped into his head. And then he mentally slapped himself for it, as this was probably not the time.

"Mhm." The girl replied.

"So, what kind of music are you listening to?" Asked Zaffre, trying desperately to start a conversation.

"Good music." She said, clearly starting to get bored by Zaffre.

"Well, that's good. Listening to bad music would just be silly." Zaffre said with a nervous chuckle.

"Yeah." She said. "Well, nice meeting you." She put her headphone back in and closed her eyes, completely tuning out Zaffre. A little annoyed, Zaffre put his thumb to his nose, wiggled his fingers and stuck out his tongue before turning away. As he began to walk back toward Rusty, he heard a giggle to his left. He turned to see a brown-haired girl staring at him with shining blue eyes, smiling.

Acting only on instinct, Zaffre looked down at his pj's, then back at the girl and said "I didn't think I looked that bad."

The girl giggled again. "No, that was about your introduction attempt."

"For the record, I think I just intimidated her." Zaffre said jokingly.

"I'm sure." Replied the girl. "You know, you didn't do that bad. She doesn't seem to be very friendly toward anybody from what I've seen."

"Oh awesome, then I still have some dignity to lose later!" Said Zaffre.

The girl laughed. "That you do." She stood up and walked up to him. "I'm Hazel by the way."

"Zaffre." Replied the spikey-haired boy. He shook her hand. "Nice to meet you Hazel."

"Nice to meet you too Zaffre." She responded.

Rusty suddenly popped up next to them. "Did you know he saves puppies from burning buildings?" He asked.

She chuckled. "So I've heard."

"Rusty, go play with your weapon." Said Zaffre. Rusty gave him a 'bow-chikka-bow-wow' face. "Your other weapon moron!"

Hazel laughed, earning a surprised look from Zaffre. He didn't often hear girls laugh at his and Rusty's dirty jokes.

"How long you guys been friends?" She asked.

"Oh our bromance has been going on for 12 years." Replied Rusty.

"Wow." She said with a smile.

"Did you not come here with friends?" Asked Zaffre, noticing that she had been previously sitting alone.

"No." She replied. "Not many in my village become huntsmen and huntresses, and those that do generally go to Beacon or one of the other schools."

"So why'd you choose to come here?" Asked Zaffre.

Hazel shrugged. "Dunno, it just felt right."

"We're from the area." Rusty chipped in. "Going here made the most sense for us."

"Can't argue with that." Said Hazel.

"So, what do you think so far?" Asked Zaffre.

"Well I can't make many judgments yet, but so far it seems like a good place. I'll just have to see how and where things go." She replied.

"Fair enough." Said Zaffre. "Well, we'd better get some rest. Maybe I'll see you at initiation tomorrow."

Hazel smiled. "I look forward to it."

Rusty and Zaffre returned to their sleeping bags.

"Nice job man!" Cheered Rusty quietly.

Zaffre just smiled.

"Now was that really so hard?" Rusty asked.

Looking back Zaffre responded, "No, it really wasn't."

Author's note: And there you have it, the first chapter of The Chronicles of ZFRR. I hope you all enjoyed it, and I look forward to any and all feedback. I will say, I do not expect to be releasing chapters as fast as Black Fuego, and my story will probably not be near as long. Never the less, I will do my best to make it as good as his. I hope you look forward to my next chapter, and have a good day!


	2. Primary Colors

Welcome fellow RWBY fans. (If you're not a RWBY fan, that's cool, but then I question why you're reading this.) I'm Xjentryn and this is my second chapter of **The Chronicles of ZFRR**. It is a good deal longer than the previous chapter, but hopefully still to your liking. It will show initiation and the teams being formed. Many of the circumstances are very similar to Beacon's initiation, but there are a few differences. I will make edits as needed.

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, or any other fandom referenced. I do own a totally unrelated hat though. It's very comfortable!

Warning: May contain mild swearing.

"Talking"

"_Thinking"_

_Memory_

**Sound effect**

"~Singing~"

The students stood along a cliff face about a mile away from campus, each on a platform. Professor Caesar stepped forward. "Welcome to initiation!" He said loudly. "Today you will be put into teams of four. These teams, once formed, will remain as such until graduation, so you will want teammates you can work well with. That being said, the first person you lock eyes with will be your partner."

Zaffre looked over at the other students. Some of them looked quite nervous, while others looked determined. One or two just looked completely lost. Scanning the line of students, Zaffre saw Hazel. She was now dressed in a simple brown shirt, where the sleeves barely passed her shoulders. On top of it was a white hunting vest, unbuttoned and full of pockets. Tan cargo pants covered her legs, with short, brown hunting boots on her feet. A brown satchel hung across her torso, from her right shoulder to her left side. She had a loose metal chain necklace around her neck, with a red diamond-shaped stone as an ornament. She also had a brown headpiece across her forehead depicting five gray stones. She glanced over and, seeing Zaffre looking at her, smiled at him.

"It is the job of you and your partner to make it to the clearing on the far end of the forest, and retrieve one token." The Headmaster continued. "You must bring that token back to this cliff before nightfall. But be warned, the forest is full of dangers. Once you leave this cliff, you will receive no support of any kind until you return. Now, are there any questions?"

"Yes." Said Rusty. "When you say 'no support of any kind', does that include toilet paper?"

The students laughed. Professor Caesar simply ignored the comment. "Best of luck to you all."

Professor Morningstar reached to her left and pulled a lever. One by one the students were flung into the air, starting at the left end: the end farthest from Zaffre. He watched as many students were launched. He saw Hazel crouch down, as if to jump, before she too joined the airborne ones. Next to him, Rusty pulled out his weapon and mounted it, a huge gleeful smile on his face.

**WHOOSH!**

Rusty was gone. Zaffre turned forward, a smile on his face. _"This is gonna be fun."_ He thought. Without warning, he was in the air. The wind rushed against his face as he soared higher. It felt good, to be in the air. It felt free. He looked ahead to see Rusty firing his weapon while riding it like a broom. Farther down, a girl with wings was gliding like a bird over the forest. _"Well that hardly seems fair."_ He thought. However, a certain blonde monkey came up behind her, appearing to be slightly out of control.

**SMACK!**

Rusty collided with the winged girl, sending them both toward the ground. The girl managed to regain herself right above the trees, using her wings to slow her descent, but landing nonetheless. Rusty crashed a ways away from her. Zaffre snapped his focus back towards his own landing, as it was coming up quickly. He reached back and whipped out his blades. As he descended into the trees, he grabbed a large trunk with the flat of his blades, using them to spiral around the tree. The spiral slowed him down, but not fully. As he neared the bottom, he released the trunk and instead hooked his swords on a low branch, converting his momentum into a flip. He did a backwards summersault through the air and landed safely on the ground. _"That was fun!"_ He thought to himself. He looked around. There were trees and rocks everywhere, but no signs of any other students. _"Well, best get going." _With that, Zaffre started walking.

– **ZFRR –**

In the middle of the forest, a tall, lightly tanned, green-haired boy was walking in the direction of the clearing. He wore a green turtleneck sweater with a brown vest depicting many pockets and pouches. He had two brown bands on each bicep, with a short, green streamer coming off of each. His pants were simple and light brown, and he had brown shoes. He also had a brown cloak on, attached by a shining, circular, green stone on the front. Tattoos of twin pale green stripes went from under the bottom outside corners of his eyes up to his ears. A gem flower earring sat on his right ear lobe. A silver necklace hung around his neck with a tree emblem pendant on it. He carried a walking stick staff with him, covered in intricate carvings. His landing had been no problem, he was very much used to forests. Here, walking through this forest, reminded him of his home.

– _8 Years Ago _–

"_Franky, what are you doing?" A voice asked. The green haired boy turned around, a small plant in his hand, roots and all. He looked up at the woman who had spoken. She had waist-length, green hair and ruby red eyes. She wore a pale green sundress with a vine-like pattern on the bottom and a few orange and yellow flowers on it._

"_This flower." He said, "It's alive. But the rest of the flowerbed has died. I want to know why."_

_The woman shook her head with a slight smile on her face. "You always were the curious sort. Come on in, it's time for dinner."_

_Franky nodded. He followed the woman inside a nearby house, flower still in hand. It was a fairly simple wooden house, in a fairly simple village. The people in this forest village preferred the simple life, though many of them enjoyed traveling to the cities and surrounding areas. The inside of the house was basic. It had a main room with a couch, a couple armchairs, and a coffee table on the right, and a dining table on the left. A door by the dining table led to a kitchen, while another door by the couch led to a bathroom and 2 bedrooms. The place was covered in decorations ranging from carvings to books to paintings. Franky's family really enjoyed art. In fact, one of Franky's favorite times of year was visiting Forjador City for The Founder's Day Festival. Franky loved getting to view the craftsmen's work and learn about it. There was very little Franky did not enjoy learning._

_Franky followed the woman to the dining table. An adorable young girl, about three years younger than Franky, sat at the table, coloring on pieces of paper. She had the same long, green hair that Franky did, but hers was braided with beautiful beads. She had on a light green t-shirt with shorts of the same color. Franky himself was wearing similar clothes, but his shirt was darker and his shorts were brown. Franky sat down next to the young girl and looked at what she was drawing. It was an image of a valley of grass with two men walking horses to a well. The drawing was very well done for someone so young._

"_Nice drawing Sis." Said Franky._

"_Thanks." She replied, still scribbling away._

_The woman walked over to the table. "Time to put away your drawings Sham. We're about to eat."_

"_Ok Mom." Said the little girl. She got up and carried her papers over to a small chest sitting on a shelf next to the couch. Franky walked into the kitchen. A man stood in there, putting the finishing touches on some roasted pork. He was a tall man, with neat, green hair that ran just past his shoulders. His eyes were shining blue. The man wore a light blue button shirt tucked into dark gray dress pants. A white apron protected his clothes from the potential messes of the kitchen._

"_Hey Dad, is there a pot I can use for this?" Franky asked, holding up the flower._

"_Sure Son." He replied, handing Franky a small clay vase. Franky gratefully put the flower's roots in the pot along with some dirt, and returned to the living room to set it on the coffee table. As he returned to the dining table, his Father came out of the kitchen, carrying the meat, while his Mother brought out a veggie salad. The two youngsters scampered over to their seats, eager for some food._

"_Did you catch this yourself dad?" Franky asked._

_His father smiled. "Sure did son."_

"_Cool." The little boy replied happily. "One day, I'm gonna be a great hunter just like you dad! I'll even take down the Grimm! I'll keep everyone safe!"_

"_I'm sure you will honey." His mom said with a loving smile. "In the mean time, let's eat."_

– _End Flashback _–

Franky smiled at the thought of home. He had traveled to many places, seen many things. But, as they say, there's no place like home. He snapped his attention back to the task at hand. He had a token to find. He continued his walk through the forest, enjoying the peace. It was short-lived however.

**BOOM!**

Off to the side, a very large explosion erupted. Franky turned to see a cloud of dust in the air. _"Someone's in trouble."_ He started running towards the site, by stopped after only ten yards. Still a ways away from the explosion, a Beowulf blocked his path. The dark creature turned towards Franky, baring its teeth. Franky held his staff out to the right, waiting for the beast to attack. He didn't have to wait long. The Beowulf lunged at Franky, hungry for a bite. Franky stepped to the left and swung his staff right into the jaws of the monster. The blow knocked it back, but did little else. With a howl the beast charged Franky again. Franky jumped over it and spun, firing a dart from his left gauntlet. The dart struck the Beowulf's hind leg. It let out a howl of pain as the poisoned dart rendered the leg mostly immobile. Enraged now, the Grimm turned around and began swinging wildly at Franky. He blocked each and every blow with his staff. As the creature held its claw high for another strike, Franky grabbed out a small, round pellet and chucked it at the beast's head. On impact, it released a gas that consumed the Beowulf's head.

Dazed and unable to see, the beast swung wildly in every direction. Franky evaded back, and fired another dart at the Grimm's other hind leg. The Beowulf roared in rage, blowing away the gas. It turned just in time to see Franky lunging at it with his weapon. The raging monster caught the end of the staff in its mouth and snarled. Franky just smiled victoriously as the end of the staff released a blast of gas directly into the Grimm's throat. The Beowulf let go of the staff, coughing relentlessly. After about five seconds, it fell over, dead. Franky re-acquired his knock-out darts from the carcass's hind legs, and walked away, once more in search of the tokens.

– **ZFRR –**

Zaffre ran as fast as he could. Only moments ago he had witnessed a large explosion off to his left. _"An explosion like that can mean only one thing."_ He thought, _"Rusty."_ He continued to run in the direction he hoped to find his friend. After a few minutes he broke into a small clearing to see his blonde friend sitting on top of a dead Ursa Minor. Well, half of one anyway. The rest appeared to be scattered everywhere.

Rusty looked at his friend calmly. "What took you so long?" He said with a smile.

Zaffre grinned at his best friend. He reached out and grabbed Rusty's hand. "Partners from the beginning."

"Partners til the end." Rusty finished.

The two joined in a bro hug. "Should've saved some for me buddy." Zaffre said.

They split apart. "I did." Rusty gestured at the corpse-ified half of the bear. "Just for you man."

Zaffre laughed. "For me? You shouldn't have."

Rusty shrugged. The pair began walking. "You seen any action yet?" Rusty asked.

"Nope." Zaffre replied. "Just been a quiet walk through the bug-filled forest."

"Shame."

"That looked like quite the rough landing by the way."

Rusty laughed, "Hey, you know perfectly well that gravity's always been on my side."

"That it has my friend."

Rusty looked over at his friend. "So what made you decide to come to where I was?"

"The explosion. I figured only one guy would make a boom that big."

"Yeah, that was fun."

"How'd you get it that size anyway?"

"Women often ask me that." Rusty winked at his friend, who chuckled at the joke. "A vial of dust." Rusty grinned mischievously. "But still, why did you come to where you knew I was if you didn't have a partner yet?"

"Is that a trick question?"

Rusty shrugged. "I just figured you'd want to be partnered with that cute brunette from the other day."

Zaffre blushed heavily. "Wha? No…I…No…She's…I mean…No"

"Uh-huh." Rusty grinned.

"Shut up."

"Hey, all I'm saying is if I had a chance to be partnered with that, I'd take it." He turned to his best friend. "And buddy, you had that chance."

"No, I didn't." Zaffre said in denial. "Besides, that's your area of expertise."

"Well in that case, I suppose you won't mind if I ask her out?"

"Go nuts dude."

"Already halfway there!" Rusty beamed.

"Hey," Zaffre suddenly paused. "Are you sure we're going the right way?"

– **ZFRR –**

"_What was that?"_ An explosion had just gone off a little ways away. The black-haired teen looked to the sky to see a cloud of dust in the air. _"Looks like somebody found trouble. I better keep my wits about me."_ The boy continued walking, making sure to pay close attention to his surroundings. He wore a close-fitting black shirt and pants of the same. On top of it was silver samurai armor with red decal. His chest plate featured two red arrows pointing down. On either side of his helmet rested a silver and black emblem of a shield depicting the image for the scales of justice. The boy himself had light skin with brown eyes and thin, black eyebrows. A long scar sat on his right cheek, a memento of one of his battles. On his waist was a sheathed red and black katana. His gaze darted around his surroundings, looking for any sign of trouble. The forest seemed peaceful enough, but he knew all too well how deceiving looks could be. He heard a rustle behind him. His head whipped around, his hand instinctively on the hilt of his blade. _"Nothing."_ He slowly turned back and resumed his walk.

He walked for a while before he heard what sounded like a muffled scream coming from ahead. He yanked out his sword and charged through the trees. He stopped at a blackened log, lying across his path. Slowly he approached it. Once it was right in front of him, he reached up and prepared himself for whatever what on the other side. With a deep breath he pulled himself up and pointed his sword at…nothing. There was no one in sight. Not even a hint of a person anywhere. He almost relaxed, until he came to a frightening revelation. Under him, the black log began to shake and threw him off. He rolled onto his back and witnessed what he had thought to be a log rise up. The black head of a mighty King Taigitu stared down at him, a hungry look in its eyes. He couldn't believe he hadn't been ready for that, he'd seen this trick before. Sometimes a Grimm would learn to imitate a victim's scream in order to attract prey. Unlike animals, humans and Faunus would run to screams.

The boy stood up quickly, holding his sword in a defensive stance. The snake lunged at him. He quickly activated his semblance, generating a blue force field in front of him, holding the snake's fangs back. _"Kind of Ironic that my semblance is blue, when everything else I use is gray and red."_ He thought to himself. Unfortunately, he couldn't maintain the force field for very long, so he needed a plan. He heard a very quiet hissing behind him, barely audible over the sound of the giant snakehead in front of him. He turned his head to see the white twin of the snake on the ground, staring at him. It lunged. He stepped to the left, dropping the force field. The two snakeheads collided, both trying to bite him.

"Make out on your own time." He smirked

The heads separated and roared at the sky, the rest of the twin-headed snake finally revealing itself. The boy prepared himself for a fight. The white head lunged first, the boy dodged to the side and slashed at the black head. His sword glanced off, leaving hardly a scratch. The hide of this snake was particularly tough. The black head lunged at him. He narrowly managed to avoid it. The two heads reared back, mouths wide open. The boy looked at his sword. _"No dust, and no stored power. Great."_ Unfortunately for him, he'd forgotten to grab any dust vials on his way to initiation today. _"Laevateinn is a great sword, but it'll be of little help without energy."_ He gripped his trusted sword tightly. The two heads came in for another lung. He rolled out of the way. Jumping over them wasn't really an option with this armor on. It did wonders to protect him, but it also slowed him down some and made him heavy. Shedding it would allow him a major boost in speed, but he wasn't as practiced without it as he was with it. _"I'll leave the shedding to the snake."_

The two heads came at him again, the black one from the top and the white one from the left. The boy plunged his sword into the ground, the blade pointed left. At the same time, he threw a force field up above him. The black head deflected off the force field, and the white head gave itself a nice paper cut on his blade. The white head roared back in pain, while the black head crashed into a tree. The boy quickly dropped the force field, and pulled out his blade. Before the snake could recuperate, he swung Laevateinn in a wide arc above his head. The slash wasn't all that deep, but the boy noticed something, tiny gaps in the snake's scales. Theoretically, a well-aimed stab would go right through. Rather than test this theory though, he retreated back. The snakeheads were ready for another strike, and his position was terrible. He darted back to a large trunk, and prepared to battle his foe.

Suddenly, a winged girl jumped out of a nearby tree, firing arrows from twin crossbows at the snake. Both arrows glanced off the thick hide. The girl opened her mouth. An ear-splitting screech emanated from her throat. The two snakeheads shuddered from the painful sound. The girl extended her wings and swooped in close. She linked her crossbows together and they shifted into a double-ended spear. She threw it at the black head's left eye, but the snake's convulsing caused it to hit its hide and fall to the ground. The white head regained its composer and lunged at the girl. A circular shield unfolded from her left arm to protect her, but the impact of the snake still sent her flying towards the ground. The boy quickly sent his force field out to catch her. She stopped just above the ground, slightly dazed.

"Thanks." She said, standing up. "That thing has a tough hide."

"I noticed." The boy responded.

The girl ran over and picked up her spear. "Any ideas?"

The boy looked at her weapon. "Can you make sparks with that?"

She grinned. "Well I have been known to show a guy a good time."

The boy dodged another attack by the snake. "Can you or not?"

She also dodged an attack. "Probably, why?"

"My sword absorbs heat. I noticed the snake's scale have slight gaps in between them. If I can juice this thing up, I think I can penetrate the hide."

She looked at the snake, then at him, and smiled. "Here!" She tossed him her shield. "Be ready!" With that she took off into the air. She shifted her weapon back into its twin crossbow form and fired a few arrows at both heads. The arrows did little more than irritate the snake. "Over here slime brains!" She shouted. She then did a perfect imitation of the snake's hiss. The hiss drew the attention of the snakes. They both lunged at her. She swooped around them, leading them away from the boy. When she'd gotten it to move about twenty yards, she rushed around behind it. The two heads turned to face her, opening their mouths to strike. The winged wonder released a volley of arrows into the monster's mouths, imbedding them in the tongues. The heads roared in agony and rage. She just smiled, and took off in a straight line towards the boy. The snakeheads chased her in a blind rage. As she neared the boy, she shouted, "Raise the shield!" He did so. She suddenly pulled up. The snakeheads were not expecting it, and collided with both each other and the shield, creating a large amount of sparks and friction.

The Boy smiled at the brilliance of the plan, as all the heat poured into Laevateinn. The already red blade glowed with the fires of life. The boy threw the shield Frisbee style back at the girl, and rolled under the great beast. With all his might he thrust the blade into the black neck above him. Pouring his aura into the blade, he released a massive flame that tore through the snake. "AAAAAA!" He shouted and with all his strength, sliced the head clean off. The remaining head screamed in pain. The girl threw her shield so it imbedded in the snake's mouth, keeping it open. She then fired arrow after arrow into the ferocious mouth. The white head struggled with all its might to close its mouth and protect its throat. The girl, seeing this, charged in and planted her spear on the monster's tongue. She then yanked out her shield, allowing the Grimm's own jaw strength to force the sharpened end up through its brain. With one final scream the remaining snakehead fell on the ground, dead. The girl flew down to the massive jaw and tore her spear out.

"Thanks for the help." Said the boy. "The name's Loy, Loy Ginn."

"Nice to meet you Loy." She said with a smile. "I'm Thistle, Thistle Sora."

"Pleasure." Responded the young samurai. "I'm surprised you didn't use your wings to just fly over the forest and collect a token."

"That was the original plan, but some idiot crashed into me. I'm fine, but my wings are too sore to go very high or very far." She frowned. "Guess that means I'm grounded."

"Lucky for me."

Thistle smiled. "Yeah well, you can kiss me later. Let's go."

– **ZFRR –**

Scarlet darted between the trees. Just a minute ago, she'd seen a huge explosion in the forest, and she didn't want to be left out of the fun. She jumped high and landed on a tree branch. She then proceeded to jump from branch to branch. Her parents had often joked with her about how she sometimes acted more cat-like than dog. But she couldn't help it; she loved being in trees! She jumped back to the ground now, racing toward the explosion site. Another couple minutes and she'd be there. _"Almost…"_

**SMACK!**

She collided head-on with another person.

"Oof! Not again." Scarlet muttered to herself. Little brown coyotes ran in circles above her head. She shook it off and looked at whom she'd hit. A brown haired girl sat across from her. She looked like a hunter by the way she was dressed. Not a Huntress, but a regular animal hunter.

"I'm so sorry, are you ok?" Asked the brown haired girl.

"That was fun." Scarlet responded, still a little dazed. She stood up. "Anyway, I hit you. I'm the one who should be apologizing."

The other girl smiled. "Don't worry about it."

Scarlet helped her stand. "I'm Scarlet. Guess we're partners."

The brown-haired hunter shook her hand. "I'm Hazel, I guess we are." She smiled. "So where were you off to in such a hurry?"

"I saw an explosion in this direction. Looked like fun."

"Weren't you worried that someone might be hurt?"

"Nah. This is Storm Academy! Anyone here can definitely handle themselves!"

Hazel chuckled. "I suppose that's true. So, shall we go get a piece of the fun?"

Scarlet beamed. "Lets do it!"

The two began walking. Scarlet looked her partner up and down. "So, who were you hoping for?"

"Huh?" Hazel asked, slightly confused.

"As a partner. Most people go into this with an idea of who they'd like to be partnered with. Most also don't get their wish. So I'm curious, who were you hoping for?"

Hazel shook her head with a smile. "No one in particular. I figured I'd just let the chips fall where they may."

"You didn't have a friend you wanted to be with?"

"I don't know anyone here."

"Well you must've met someone since you got here. Beautiful girl like you, how could you not have?"

Hazel laughed. "I did meet a few people."

"Any of them worthy candidates?"

Hazel's thoughts turned to one particular boy. "Well, there was one I met the other day who seemed quite nice. A boy named Zaffre."

Scarlet gave her a knowing look. "A boy huh? I gotcha." She winked.

Hazel chuckled. "No no, nothing like that. He just seemed really nice."

"I bet he did." Scarlet kept grinning.

Hazel just shrugged it off. "Look up there!"

Ahead was a small clearing, most likely the site of the explosion. The two girls stepped out of the trees and looked around. The bottom half of an Ursa Minor lay in the middle, with bits of the rest of it scattered all around. There was no sign of any people though.

"Ah man, we missed it!" Scarlet frowned

"Looks like whoever was here really did a number on that thing." Hazel examined the severed beast.

"Must've been a pretty powerful shot."

"Not necessarily. An ordinary explosive round down the throat would do this. Whomever did this is either a really good shot, or was bold enough to be right in this creature's face." She stepped back.

"Maybe they just wanted a hug!" Scarlet proceeded to hug herself with a smile, making Hazel laugh.

"You really love your inner child don't you?"

Scarlet beamed in response.

"Well, we'd better head toward the tokens. I don't expect these guys to come back anytime soon."

"Why do you say 'these guys'? How do you know it wasn't just one."

"It was one, but he or she was quickly joined by a friend afterwards. Probably a good friend."

"But how can you tell?"

"I come from a village of hunters. Not huntsmen and huntresses, but regular animal hunters. As such, I'm very good at tracking." She pointed at the ground. "See here, only one set of footprints fighting the creature." She walked to the trees. "But here, we see another set come out." Hazel walked back near the Ursa carcass. "And here. The footprints are right next to each other, face to face. These people either really liked each other, or hated each other."

"Maybe they were a couple?" Scarlet suggested.

"No, look at the prints. The indentation suggests some force with their impact. But there was no scuffle. So most likely it was a hug. And guys are known to hug rougher than girls. So most likely it was two boys." Hazel pointed at the trees. "And there you can see the two sets of prints leaving together." Hazel frowned. "…In the wrong direction." She sighed. "I hope they find their way."

"Wow." Scarlet awed. "That's some sweet skills!"

Hazel smiled. "Let's go get a token."

"Oaky!" Scarlet bolted into the forest, with Hazel chasing after.

"Wait! It's this way!"

– **ZFRR –**

The woods were silent. No growling Grimm, no noisy students, just quiet. A young boy with black hair stared at the tokens. They rested in a circle on top of low-cut grass. A chasm separated them from the forest, with three old, stone bridges lying peacefully on top. The boy took in a deep breath. Two pairs of students had come through and taken tokens, none of them noticing him. He just continued to stand next to his tree. He looked down at his hoodie. It had changed from it's normal white to a deep brown with lines all over it. His pants and shoes had similarly changed. Standing still, one could not distinguish him from the tree he stood by. He sighed a little. _"I'd hoped by now someone would have spotted me."_ He thought to himself. But no such luck.

His landing in the forest had been rough; it had almost cost him his bandana. Luckily for him though, it survived and stayed on. After that it had been a relatively short walk to the tokens. He hadn't seen a single Grimm the entire time, though he'd past many students. Most of them were lost, some even whimpering. It was rather pathetic. Not a single one of them had seen him. Not surprising, after all he was camouflaged. And he was certainly used to blending in. Still, those students didn't interest him. He was only interested in the student who could spot him. So far though, that quest seemed to be in vain. He heard some leaves rustle. Turning, he saw a guy and a girl come out of the forest.

"That Beowulf was kinda frightening." The girl said quietly.

"Don't worry." The boy replied, putting his arm around her. "I'll protect you."

She smiled and snuggled toward him, glancing down briefly. The hidden boy smirked under his bandana. He could see exactly what was going on. _"Tonight you're gonna make a move on her. She's gonna fain interest long enough to steal from your wallet."_ He watched as each of them grabbed a different token. _"As I suspected, you're not even partners, you both left your partners for this bullshit."_ He groaned at the thought of all the drama he might see in the coming year. The sound of his groan startled the two students. The boy practically jumped out of his shoes, instinctively grabbing his weapon. His eyes darted around. _"Drama queens, idiots, and scaredy cats. Ugh." _The two students cautiously walked back into the forest, headed back to the starting point. The hidden boy face palmed. _"Why didn't I go to Beacon?"_ Truly, it seemed that this school was full of second-rate wannabes.

"Don't worry, those two hardly reflect the rest of us."

The hidden boy looked around quickly, trying to figure out who'd spoken.

"Up here."

The boy looked up to see a green-haired boy his age sitting in the tree above him, looking right at him. He lowered his camouflage.

"That's better. I was wondering how long you were gonna stand there." The green-haired boy jumped down, his brown cloak fluttering as he did so. "I'm Franky."

The previously hidden boy nodded. "Ryku." He then looked up at the branches. "How long?"

"Was I up there? About five minutes. I spotted you pretty quickly. Didn't know what you were doing, so I decided to watch. I was pleased to see you weren't trying to sabotage people." Franky Smiled. "Have a partner yet?"

Ryku shook his head.

"Me either. Pleased to meet you partner." Franky offered his hand to shake. Ryku simply nodded. "Ok then. Shall we grab a token?"

Ryku turned and began walking towards the stone circle. Franky shrugged and followed. He wasn't insulted by Ryku's behavior, some people are reserved, and without knowing why he was, Franky saw no reason to judge him for it. The two crossed the center bridge and looked at the tokens. Each one was a smooth stone about the size of Franky's palm, with a symbol carved on. There appeared to be two of each symbol.

"These look like zodiac symbols." Franky observed. He reached to grab one when he suddenly heard a crashing sound. The two boys whipped around to see two girls charging out of the forest. One had red hair, the other had brown hair.

"Run!" The red haired girl shrieked. Behind them trees were pushed to the side as a massive creature charged out after them.

"Oh, my, gosh." Franky whispered to himself. If it was possibly, the pasty white Ryku paled a little.

– **ZFRR –**

On the starting cliff, Headmaster Caesar stood with his hands held behind his back. He gazed intently at the forest stretching out in front of him. Next to him, Professor Morningstar stood with a scroll in her hand, watching the various students' progression.

"Looks as though most students have found a partner." She said. "And so far four groups have obtained tokens."

The headmaster continued to stare at the forest, giving little reaction to her words. Professor Morningstar continued to scroll through the students.

"Looks like Franky and Ryku have been paired together. I expect they'll be a force to be reckoned with, if they can work together." She frowned. "There aren't too many other students I feel I can say that about though. I have to say, so far I'm disappointed in this year's batch."

The headmaster turned ever so slightly. "Give them time. I see some great potential in many of them."

"For some, I'll agree. Although that boy Rusty, I don't expect he'll last long here. He has no regard for rules or safety."

Headmaster Caesar smiled slightly, deep in thought. Noticing this, Professor Morningstar gave him a puzzled look.

"What is it?"

"I was just remembering my youth. I traveled a lot, and had quite the affinity for danger. To the outside world, everything I did was selfishly for fun. But even looking back now, I believe I did good works, and I believe our young friend Rusty has that same potential. The face of a clown is a mask many wear, but what lies behind that mask is what's important."

He turned to face her.

"In this forest, within theses challenges, many students laugh, or cower. Some fight, some run. Some refuse to even stay focused. But beyond that, look at how they treat each other, at how they treat themselves. See why they choose their courses of action, and what they do second. In every student down there, I see the raw materials of a huntsman or huntress. It is our job to forge them."

Professor Morningstar looked a bit skeptical. "If you say so."

The headmaster turned back to face the forest. "You are still new here, but give it time and you'll see, sometimes the most unrefined man, becomes the most refined huntsman."

– **ZFRR –**

"This way! Come on!"…"Wait, sorry, this way. Just got turned around is all."…"No, hold on. I think I was right the first time."

"Ok, just admit we're lost."

"We're not lost, I know exactly where we are!"

"And what about where everything else is?"

"Ah, semantics!"

"So then we're lost."

"I'd prefer to say exploring."

"Uh huh."

Rusty turned to his friend "Ok, which way do you think we should go?"

Zaffre grinned. "Toward the tokens."

Rusty smiled. "Oh yeah, that clears everything up."

Zaffre and Rusty had been wandering around for about an hour now, with no sign of the tokens. They had seen a Beowulf or two, but those had been taken care of quickly. Now Rusty was pacing back and forth, while Zaffre leaned on a tree.

Rusty's stomach growled. "I need some food."

"When do you not?" Zaffre smiled. He reached into his pocket. "Here, I figured you'd need this." He tossed Rusty a snack bar. Rusty gratefully gobbled it down.

"That's better." Rusty said happily.

"Good, then what do you say we take a peak above the trees?"

"We haven't seen anything the last few times, but why not, I do love flying."

"I would call it 'falling with style', but whatever. Lower your gravity."

Rusty nodded. A faint brown glow came to him as he activated his aura. Using his semblance, he decreased his gravity to the ground. Zaffre walked over and grabbed his friend's ankles. With a great thrust, Zaffre sent Rusty into the air. Rusty spun around, trying to find any indication of where the tokens were. Unfortunately, a mist had set over the treetops just under an hour ago. So, just like each time before, he couldn't tell where to go. He landed next to Zaffre with a sigh.

"Nothing dude, the fog is still too thick."

Zaffre groaned. "At this rate we'll never find them."

"Well, time to show off your tremendous leadership skills. What do we do?"

"You know perfectly well I'm no leader."

"Yeah well, I'm a monkey, so what do we do?"

Zaffre looked around. "Well, we don't have a compass. I can't see any moss indications on the trees or rocks. And the sun is too high to get a good direction from it." True, the fog was in the way, but the sun could be made out somewhat through it. "Honestly, I don't know."

"We could try flying."

Zaffre stared at his friend. "Dude, that's not a good idea. We can't maintain it long, and in that fog we won't be able to tell if anything's in front of us."

Zaffre looked up. "Although…" He looked back at his friend. How long can you keep us in the air without wings?"

Rusty shrugged. "Probably not long."

"Alright, I have an idea. Let's fly!"

Rusty grinned happily; he loved flying. Pulling out his weapon, Rusty planted one end on the ground, and had spikes pop out of it. Zaffre reached back and pulled out his twin swords. With the push of a button, they expanded into mega swords. Each one was about six feet long. He hooked the ends of the hilts together, in such a way that they looked like wings. He then held them up to the spikeless top of Rusty's weapon.

"Remember," said Zaffre, "These babies are heavy, so without a really strong gust of wind, this won't work long."

"Yeah yeah I know. Danger, crashing, ouchies. Now let's go!"

Zaffre grinned. He and Rusty held onto Rusty's weapon with death grips. Rusty glowed again as he lowered their gravity. Together the two friends jumped at the same time as Rusty fired his weapon at the ground. The pair was sent straight up, each of them mounting their ride. Zaffre sat at the front, controlling his swords. Rusty sat back near the spikes, using them to keep the whole thing from flipping. As they began to clear the fog, Zaffre tilted the blades. The makeshift plane began to level out.

"I'm about to remove the wings!" Shouted Zaffre. "Keep us up as long as you can!"

"Ok!" Shouted back a gleeful Rusty.

Rusty continued to fire his weapon, providing the propulsion needed to stay airborne. Zaffre unhooked his swords, and spun one of the blades over, so it now faced backwards. He then re-clipped them together into a giant bladed boomerang. With a mighty heave, he threw the boomerang forward. It tore through the fog, pushing it away from the trees. Zaffre smiled as he saw the edge of the forest off in the distance, but the smile dropped as their ride shuddered and they began to descend.

"Uh dude, we're headed down!" Rusty called out.

Zaffre grimaced. His boomerang was on its way back, but it was now going to fly right over their heads.

"I'm gonna have to abandon ship!" He called back. Rusty nodded in agreement.

As the giant blades neared the air above them, Zaffre leaped up, off their ride. He managed to catch the blades in midair, but then began to fall. He quickly folded his blades back to their condensed size and put them away. He braced himself; it was all he had time to do before…

**CRASH!**

He smacked into the ground, right next to Rusty. _"Thank goodness for Rusty's gravity."_ He thought. _"Without it, I doubt that fall would've been so pleasant."_

Next to him, Rusty was lying with a smile on his face. _"That was sick! I'm glad my semblance held out through my landing!"_

The two boys sat up and began laughing. "There is no way that should've worked!" Zaffre exclaimed happily. Rusty just beamed. Zaffre stood up and dusted himself off. "Well, I believe I saw the tokens this way."

Rusty jumped to his feet. "Well what are we waiting for?"

Rusty took off in the direction Zaffre had indicated, Zaffre close behind. The two bolted through the woods, jumping and dodging vines, roots, and rocks. Rusty managed to stay just a little bit ahead of Zaffre, no surprise considering his monkey side.

"C'mon man! Is that all you got?" Rusty taunted at his friend.

Zaffre ignored the comment and kept running. Ahead Rusty was looking back and laughing, completely not paying attention to what was in front of him. This ignorance proved unwise as a large root came up on them and tripped him.

**THUD!**

Rusty face planted into the ground. Zaffre himself nearly fell over from laughing. "Behold, the pinnacle of modern jungle apes!"

Rusty stood up, grinning, and threw some dirt at Zaffre. Zaffre ducked and continued laughing.

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up. It could have just as easily happened to you."

"Ah, but it didn't did it?" Zaffre laughed a bit more, and then suddenly stopped, his smile dropping instantaneously. "Something's wrong."

"What do you mean?" Rusty asked curiously.

"I don't know, but something feels very off." Zaffre pulled out his swords, and began looking around. The woods were quiet; there was no sign of anything. Zaffre tensed up. It was too quiet. _"No birds chirping, no anything. Even a quiet forest should have some noise to it."_ Zaffre heard a low growl nearby. He whipped around to face it, but saw nothing. Then it dawned on him: he saw nothing, and no one. _"Where the heck is Rusty?!"_ Zaffre began to get nervous. As he turned, a black blob suddenly shot out of the trees at him. Before it could hit him however, it was struck by an explosive round from above. Zaffre looked up to see his blonde friend in the trees, weapon out. Turning back, the 'blob' was revealed as a Boarbatusk. It was unconscious from Rusty's shot, but not dead. Smirking, Zaffre plunged his blade through the beast, ending its miserable life.

Rusty jumped down. "You were so scared." He mocked.

"Hey, I was right about something being off. I just thought it'd be a lot worse. Let's be thankful I was wrong."

Rusty grinned. "Ok then, scaredy cat."

Zaffre was about to say something, when another black mass suddenly appeared and knocked him back. Rusty quickly aimed his weapon and fired. The shot hit the Grimm dead on, but again only succeeded in dazing it. Zaffre stood up with a grimace.

"You ok?" Asked Rusty. "That looked like it really hurt."

"I'm fine, barely felt it. But I think we forgot one very important detail."

"Which is?"

"A Boarbatusk often travels with a herd."

Around them, many pairs of red eyes appeared in the trees. Boarbatusk after Boarbatusk rolled out at the two. At least twenty or thirty of them attacked. Rusty and Zaffre stood back-to-back, dodging and blocking every hit.

"Slice em up Zaffre!" Rusty called out. He was currently using his weapon like a bat, hitting each Grimm away.

"You got it!" Zaffre expanded his blades. He held the right one up high, and swung down hard at the nearest beast. Rather than kill it though, the blade hit the protective armor and glanced off.

"This isn't working!" Zaffre cried out.

"I thought your blades could cut through anything!" Rusty smacked another couple Grimm away.

"The problem is the size." Zaffre deflected a rolling Boarbatusk with his blade. "They're too small. It's difficult to hit them straight on, so the blows just glance off."

"Then we need a plan!" Rusty continued to hit them back, now with spikes extended on each end of his weapon.

"Agree. We're too vulnerable here, we need to move the battlefield!" Zaffre managed to flip a charging boar over and slash its stomach.

"That sounds a lot like running away!"

"Call it a strategic withdrawal! Unless you've got a better idea!"

Rusty looked around. The beasts were still coming, and even he didn't fancy being overwhelmed. "Alright, let's go!"

"Lower our gravity and hold on!"

Rusty complied. He activated his semblance, lowering the gravity on the two of them, then grabbed onto Zaffre. Zaffre leaped over the oncoming Grimm, allowing them to crash into each other. But they were far from defeated. Zaffre and Rusty took off running in the direction of the tokens, the Boarbatusks right behind.

"I hope you've got a plan!" Rusty called out.

– **ZFRR –**

Hazel panted as she chased Scarlet. Hazel was used to running, and was in good shape, but she'd never met any human, Faunus, or animal that had as much energy as Scarlet. "Wait! Up!" Hazel shouted. Scarlet seemed oblivious. Hazel frowned. She'd been chasing Scarlet for awhile, and Scarlet was going the wrong way. Running out of breath, Hazel broke into a small clearing. The young coyote was nowhere to be seen. Hazel examined the ground, trying to figure out where her partner had gone, but found no tracks. Puzzled by this, she glanced around, and then smiled as she saw the young redhead sitting in a tree. Still out of breath, Hazel walked over to her.

"What are you doing up there?" She asked.

Scarlet smiled down. "I love trees! They're so much fun."

Hazel continued to smile. "I thought it was cats that climbed trees."

Scarlet shrugged. "I guess I'm not your ordinary puppy then."

"I'll agree to that." Hazel sat down beneath the tree, resting her legs. "Why'd you take off like that?"

"It felt good. The release of energy."

"That makes sense, but the tokens are that way." Hazel pointed to the left and a bit behind them.

"Oh." Scarlet replied sheepishly. "Oops."

Hazel shook her head. "Don't worry about it, we still have plenty of time. Let's rest for a moment before we continue."

"Ok!" Scarlet said happily. "I need to use the little coyote's room anyway."

Scarlet jumped down and ran on all fours over behind a large tree._ "Is she really?"_ Thought Hazel. Much to her amusement, Scarlet did indeed do what Hazel was thinking. She crouched next to the tree and raised her leg. Hazel smirked and turned her back, allowing the energetic teen some privacy. After a minute, Scarlet rejoined her partner.

"You're certainly an odd one, you know that?"

"Yep!" Scarlet beamed. She sat down next to her partner.

"So, what do you do?"

"What do you mean?" Scarlet asked with a puzzled look.

"Well if we're gonna be partners, we may as well get to know each other. What do you do for fun? Where are you from? How do you fight? What's your semblance? What's your favorite food?"

Scarlet smiled. "I'm from a small city/large town, however you want to say it. I live with my parents and siblings, though I spend much of my time with my grandmother. She's a retired huntress. She take me out to various activities and tells me stories about when she was younger."

"Sounds nice." Hazel smiled.

"It is. When I'm not with her I generally play with my siblings. As far as my fighting, I use these beauties." She held up her arms, showing off her silver gauntlets. "Watch." As she said that, three blades extended out from each, like really long claws.

"Cool."

"That's not all!" The claws began to spark with electricity.

"Nice. Is that your semblance?"

"Nah, I've just always had an affinity for electricity. I can also shift these into grappling hooks." The three blades on her left arm shifted into a circle.

"Pretty cool. You make those yourself?"

"Yep! My grandma helped me. She also taught me how to use them." Scarlet held them up in a fighting pose, obviously wanting to show off her skills.

"Maybe later." Hazel said, seeing the eager look in her partner's eyes.

Scarlet sighed. "Okay. Anyway, my semblance is Pulse. I can create ripples, pulses, vibrations, and waves. The more energy I put into them, the bigger they are."

"That's a pretty useful ability."

"What about you? Tell me about yourself!"

Hazel smiled. "Okay. As you know, I'm from a village of hunters. So for fun I generally go hunting, camping, hiking, or other outdoor activities."

Scarlet smiled at the thought of those pastimes.

"My weapons are these." Hazel pulled out two curved short swords. "They may not sparkle like yours," Scarlet beamed at the word 'sparkle', "But they are each a small machine gun. And I can combine them into a horseshoe trident."

"What's your semblance?"

"Rift. I can teleport short distances. I can teleport at most three times in rapid succession, with each one taking an hour to recharge. The time also stacks, so if I use all three at once, I have to wait three hours."

"Cool! Can I see?" The young pup was practically jumping in her seat.

"Not right now. I should save them in case we need them in battle."

Scarlet pouted some, but understood. Becoming bored, she got up and started running back and forth through the trees. Hazel watched with a light smile.

"I'll cut any Grimm I meet to pieces!" Scarlet exclaimed as she whipped out her metal claws.

"Be careful!" Hazel warned.

Scarlet didn't pay attention though, happily running and swinging wildly. She fired a couple electricity blasts into the air for show. It was all good fun, until she tripped. Her foot hit a root right as she was letting loose some electricity. As she fell to the ground, her arms flailed, sending the electric blast at a nearby tree. The shock broke the trunk, and the tree started to fall. Hazel bolted to her teammate's side, and quickly pulled her out of the way. The tree fell right where the girls had been, the top of it hitting some white rocks a little ways away.

Scarlet looked at the fallen tree and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."

**RRRRROOOOOOAAAAAAAA!**

The sound of the roar made Scarlet jump. "You didn't have to shout." She said to her partner.

"T-That w-wasn't me." Hazel said worriedly.

The two looked to the rocks the tree had hit, and saw them begin to shudder. Slowly they rose up, revealing a massive black body. A giant tail sprung up from the ground, with an enormous yellow stinger on the end. The giant creature turned to face them, its yellow eyes lit with rage.

"I don't think that was just a pile of rocks." Scarlet said nervously.

"It's a Death Stalker!" Hazel exclaimed fearfully. "And I think we woke it up!"

The giant scorpion glared at the two girls, snapping its massive claws menacingly. Scarlet and Hazel stood frozen with fear. Angry at the abrupt awakening, the beast charged them. The girls jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding being hit. The Death Stalker instead slammed into a tree, knocking it down. The large Grimm turned to the quivering students, unfazed by the impact.

"I think we should run!" Scarlet called out.

"This way!" Shouted Hazel.

The two took off, Hazel leading the way. Behind them the great beast plowed through the forest like a lawnmower through tall grass. Trees, bushes, and boulders were all trampled and flattened by the angry Grimm. Hazel turned around and began firing her machinegun blades at it, but the bullets did little more than piss it off more. Scarlet also tried hitting it using her electricity. It proved to be equally ineffective.

"This isn't good!" Hazel cried out.

"We need a plan!"

Hazel looked around, and suddenly had an idea. "Hit that tree!" She pointed ahead to the right. "Knock it down when I say!"

"Okay!" The young Faunus readied her weapons.

"NOW!"

Scarlet shot the tree with her electric blast, causing it to break. Simultaneously, Hazel used her swords to cut at another tree on the left. Both trees slowly began to fall inward. The girls bolted out. As the Death Stalker came through, both trees fell on it, pinning it to the ground. The two partners stopped and tried to catch their breath.

"Let's finish it!" Scarlet exclaimed.

"We can't, our ammunition can't penetrate the shell."

"So what do we do?"

"Keep running and hope it stays pinned!"

"Ok!"

They resumed their mad dash, frantically trying to put as much distance between them and the Grimm as possible. Unfortunately, they soon heard the unmistakable sound of the beast freeing itself. Up ahead, the tree line was visible. The partners were about thirty yards from the edge of the forest. The students channeled every bit of energy they had into their legs. For Scarlet, it was a lot. She burst out of the woods, Hazel close behind, and stopped on the edge of a deep chasm.

– **ZFRR –**

Franky and Ryku could not believe their eyes. Two girls had just burst out of the forest being closely followed by a Death Stalker. They were running frantically, trying not to be dinner. Fearing for them, Franky activated his semblance. "Let's go!" He charged at the beast wicked fast, a trail of green leaves behind him.

Ryku watched him charge into battle. _"Speed semblance huh? Not bad."_ He activated his own semblance. Numbers and figures began to scroll across his vision. Lines and charts gave diagnostics. Paths and calculations appeared in his peripherals. He reached back and pulled out a sniper rifle, aiming it at the beast. Calmly he waited, planning his shot.

Franky reached the girls within seconds. He darted between them and threw a gas pellet at the Death Stalker. Temporarily blinded, it began thrashing around violently. Franky jumped back avoiding the blows, but the beast continued to advance. Franky ducked and dodged as best he could, but the Grimm still managed to land a sideways blow, throwing him to the ground. Behind him, Hazel and Scarlet had stopped their retreat, and were once again trying in vain to shoot through the beast's shell.

The Giant scorpion moved forward to attack, raising its stinger for a strike. Before it could loose it though, a single shot fired from Ryku's sniper hit a weak point in its leg, causing it to collapse. Franky used this temporary pause to stand back up and ready his staff. He thrust the end into the Death Stalker's face, and let loose a blast of Grimm-lethal gas. The scorpion stopped flailing, and lay still.

"You killed it!" Scarlet exclaimed happily.

"No, just knocked out. A Grimm that size would take a good deal more gas to kill."

"Then let's finish it." Hazel chipped in.

"I don't have the means to. The gases I have with me aren't strong enough for something this size."

"Allow me!" Scarlet let loose dozens of electricity bursts, none of which did anything. Ryku face palmed as he watched. Franky put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"That's not going to do anything. We need to grab tokens and get out of here."

"I'm with him on this." Hazel added.

Scarlet sighed. "Okay."

The four turned toward the tokens and began walking. Franky led the way across the bridge. However, when they had only gone halfway they heard a growl from behind them. The students whipped around. The large Grimm husk began shuddering. Slowly, its claws opened and closed. The Death Stalker opened its eyes, and began to stand up.

"Looks like the gas is wearing off." Franky commented.

The four took battle-ready stances. Hazel combined her weapons into their trident form, and set the double barrels aimed at the beast. Scarlet crouched and held her claws out to the sides, electricity sparking from the blades. Ryku held his rifle up, readying his shot. Franky held his staff pointed at the Grimm, and loaded a new gas pellet into it. The Grimm stood up fully and roared, snapping its claws at the sky. The four students braced themselves. The Death Stalker's gaze shifted down the line of future Huntsmen and Huntresses. With one more roar, the giant charged. Three of students followed suit, charging head on. Ryku stayed back and released an army of bullets. The shots hit the Grimm's weak points, but did little to slow it down.

Franky leapt into the air, spraying a pale green gas all around him. The Death Stalker cried out in rage as it lost its view of the world. From the left, two jolts of electricity struck the beast. It swung its claw in retaliation, but hit only air. From its right, a barrage of bullets fired from Hazel struck the shell. The monster thrust its tail to the spot where the shots had come from, but hit nothing. A pulse through the air hit it from behind. Spinning rapidly, the Death Stalker lashed out, hitting only the wind for the third time. More bullets came from the right. In a state of pure frustration, the Death Stalker roared and began pounding the ground with its claws. The resulting vibrations caused all the young attackers to fall. The beast extended its tail and claws outward, and spun. The left claw managed to connect with Franky, throwing him back and knocking his staff away. With Franky no long maintaining it, the fog began to clear.

The lack of gas allowed the large scorpion to see its prey, but it also allowed Ryku to see it. Seeing his chance, the hooded boy fired a shot right into one of the Death Stalker's eyes, partially blinding it. In pain and anger, the beast screamed and charged him. Scarlet put her hands on the ground and sent out a wave of vibrations. The trembling ground caused the Grimm to trip and collapse once more. Regaining his weapon, Franky ran around the beast towards its head, jumped over a swinging claw, rolled on the ground and stopped with his arms outstretched. His left gauntlet fired a dart at another eye, while his gauntlet arm fired a dart at the stinger. The eye dart missed, instead striking the white shell. The other dart imbedded right where the stinger met the tail.

With a wink, Franky darted away. The other three continued to fire at the Grimm from various locations, furthering its rage.

"This doesn't seem to be very effective!" Hazel shouted out.

"We need a new tactic!" Scarlet added."

Ryku glanced at the forest. _"Reinforcements."_

Not five seconds later, two figures emerged from the forest. One was a light-skinned boy wearing samurai armor. Above him, a winged girl flew with twin crossbows in her hands.

"Looks like we're just in time for the party!" Thistle exclaimed happily.

She swooped in and unleashed a volley of arrows at the Grimm. The arrows did little damage, but did gain its attention. On the ground, the armored boy swung a red katana horizontally, sending out a slash of fire. The flames hit the Death Stalker square in the face. It screamed as the heat bore into its eyes, further worsening its vision.

"Oh yeah! My partner's hot!" Thistle gloated in joy.

Loy smirked, continuing his heat assault. Franky prepared for another go, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw Ryku pointing off to the far bridge. Two boys had just emerged from the forest, followed by a horde of Boarbatusks. Franky nodded in agreement. Right now those two needed their help more. Franky and Ryku took off to assist them, leaving the Death Stalker to the mercy of the others.

"Where are they going?" Scarlet shouted. "The fun's over here!"

Loy looked in the direction they'd gone. "Looks like two other students are also having a Grimm problem, and faring worse than us."

"Yeah well, we are pretty awesome!" Thistle cheered. However, in her moment of distractedness, the Death Stalker managed to hit her in the back with its stinger. "AAAAAHHHHHH!" Thistle cried in pain, her wings going limp. She fell to the ground with a thud, landing in front of the merciless monster. It held its tail high for a second strike, but was stopped by a blue force field.

"Not my partner you ugly beast! Not on my watch!" Loy held the protective shield between the Grimm and Thistle, much to the former's annoyance.

"We need to get in there!" Scarlet shouted.

Hazel looked at the beast's stinger. "I've got an idea." She held her arms in a x-pattern over her chest, and quickly extended them. The next second she was gone. She appeared on top of the Death Stalker and began slicing at its tail and stinger. It didn't take the angry Grimm long to take notice. It raised its tail high, and stabbed straight for her. Hazel smiled, and whipped her arms once more, teleporting out. The stinger went through the air unchallenged, and imbedded in the Death Stalker's own hide. The Grimm screamed in pain once more, trying desperately to dislodge its tail. These attempts were in vain though; the stinger didn't budge.

Weakly Thistle watched it all take place. She then looked over at the bridges. "I have…a plan." She groaned.

"You can't keep going." Loy insisted.

"I know. But listen."

Loy nodded.

Hazel and Scarlet continued to attack the Death Stalker, still mostly in vain. Now though, they had the advantage that it couldn't use its stinger. Loy ran over to them, surrounding the vengeful Grimm with a force field to temporarily contain it.

"That works." Said Scarlet.

"Yeah, but not for long. Listen, my partner has a plan."

Scarlet glanced over at the fallen bird girl. "Her?" She scoffed.

"Just listen. You."

"Hazel."

"Okay, Hazel, can you bring someone with you when you teleport?"

"Yeah, but I can only do it once more before I have to let it recharge."

"Okay, here's the plan…"

– **ZFRR –**

Rusty and Zaffre ran as fast as they could, the horde of Grimm close behind.

"Boy, these guys are really determined!" Rusty shouted, grinning despite the danger.

"Yeah, maybe you should apologize to them."

"For what?"

"You're you. If we did something to piss them off, it was probably your fault."

Rusty turned his head back. "I'm sorry you're so ugly and nobody loves you!"

"Real smooth moron."

Rusty's grin grew. The two continued running, managing to stay just ahead of the deadly stampede. Ahead the trees began to thin.

"I think I see the edge!" Zaffre shouted.

"Huh, so the world is flat."

"Not of the Earth dumbass! Of the forest!"

"You think they'll stop chasing us there?"

"Yeah, because Grimm explode in direct sunlight." Zaffre replied sarcastically.

"Cool! Vampire Grimm!"

The two best friends headed for the edge. Within moments they burst through the last of the trees and into the sun. Ahead of them was a large crevasse in the ground, with three stone bridges across it. The rightmost bridge was ahead of them. Over near the leftmost bridge, they could see a battle going on with a Death Stalker.

"Looks like we're late to the party." Rusty joked.

"Better late than never." Zaffre looked behind him to see that most of the Boarbatusks were rolling. He looked ahead at the chasm. "I have an idea!" They ran to the edge of the chasm, and stopped. Zaffre whipped out his blades, expanded them, and plunged them into the ground at an angle. Ten or so Boarbatusks rolled off the makeshift ramp and fell into the chasm. The others stopped short, not wanting the same fate. Zaffre withdrew his blades from the ground.

"What, no 'Hi, nice to meet you'?" Rusty asked.

One of the Boarbatusks snorted, and each stood patiently, waiting for their quarry to leave the cliff face. Suddenly a green-haired boy jumped into the middle of the horde, spraying gas everywhere. He jumped out and struck a piece of metal and stone. The gas ignited, tossing many of the Grimm aside. A couple more Grimm went down with sniper shots to the eyes from a pale boy in a white hoodie. A few Boarbatusks charged the sniper. Ryku shifted his weapon into a glaive, and started swatting the boars away.

Franky turned to Zaffre and Rusty. "You looked like you could use a hand."

"Us? Nah!" Rusty Scoffed. "Those dimwitted beasts were just about to surrender!"

Franky smiled. "I'm sure."

Zaffre looked at Franky's staff. "Can you do that again?"

"Sure." Franky said, pulling out some more combustible gas pellets.

"Alright. How good a shot is he?" Zaffre gestured at Ryku.

"Very from what I've seen." Franky replied.

"Ok, I have an idea."

– **ZFRR –**

Hazel and Scarlet continued to attack the Death Stalker, hitting it with bullets, electricity and pulses. The beast grew angrier and angrier, frantically swinging its claws at them. The two girls backed up across the bridge.

"Of course the 'winged wonder' would come up with this plan." Scarlet scoffed.

Hazel looked at her with a questioning look. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, let's just do this."

"It's a great plan."

Scarlet sighed. "I know."

The two girls continued to lure the giant monster across the bridge. When they were near the other side, Scarlet leapt onto Hazel's back. Scarlet continued to send pulses at the Grimm, annoying it all the more. The Death Stalker raised its claws high, ready to end the pesky pain-in-the-necks once and for all. The claws descended rapidly, but just before impact, Hazel thrust her arms to the side, using her last teleport to return them safely to the other side. Instead of flattening the girls, the claws smashed the end of the bridge. Thistle used as much breath as she could to whistle at the Grimm. It turned back to face the students. Loy stood on the other side of the bridge, his sword drawn. With the last of its current power, he plunged it into the remaining end of the bridge and released a powerful flame into the ground. The stone broke, and both bridge and Death Stalker fell into the chasm. With one final scream, the great monster finally met its end. After watching the fall, the students turned to see how Franky and Ryku were fairing.

Ryku now held what looked like a giant metal q-tip aimed at a horde of Boarbatusks. The beasts themselves were occupied by Franky and a blonde boy. Across the bridge from them, a blue-haired boy with two massive swords was inserting said weapons into the cliff face. Hazel recognized the boys quickly from the previous night. Without his blades, Zaffre rejoined his fellow combatants. Franky and Rusty nodded at him. Rusty raised his hands and Hazel could swear they began to glow a deep brown. Franky threw the pellets beside the Grimm, and Zaffre jumped into the middle. As he descended, Zaffre began to glow yellow, He punched the ground, hard. The shockwave sent the Boarbatusks into the air. They flew up as if their gravity had been weakened. As soon as the boars were up, Ryku fired at the gas, igniting it. Simultaneously, Rusty pointed at the implanted blades across the chasm. The gas explosion shoved the Grimm horde towards the gaping gash in the ground. But even beyond that, they soared to the pit like something was pushing them. As soon as they were all over the chasm, Rusty dropped his arms, and the Boarbatusks fell to the same fate as the Death Stalker had not moments ago.

Hazel and Scarlet stood amazed, until they suddenly remember what had happened to Thistle. They, along with Loy, bolted over to the girl lying on the ground. She was still breathing, and still conscious. Over by the far bridge, the boys followed Franky towards Thistle as well.

"Is she gonna be ok?" Loy asked with concern.

"I don't know." Hazel said sadly. "I don't know how much venom got in her system."

Thistle looked at Loy. "If you were gonna kiss me, now would probably be the time." She said weakly with a grin.

Loy chuckled. "You'll be fine."

"He's right." Franky added, finally returning. "The dart I shot into its stinger contained an agent that nullified the poison. The stabbed tissue is the only damage you have to worry about."

Thistle smiled. "Good to know."

"She still seems pretty bad off for a stab." Said Zaffre. "Do you think it hurt her spine?"

"No." Thistle croaked. "My people, that is, my Faunus people, our wings are our weakness. A good hit to them can take us completely out of battle or even kill us." Seeing their worried expressions she added, "Don't worry, I'll live. It'll just take time to heal."

"That's a relief." Smiled Hazel.

"Indeed." Added Zaffre. "Now what do you say we all grab a token." He looked at Thistle. "Then we'll help you get back."

Thistle smiled. "Sounds like a plan."

– **ZFRR –**

The students all stood in the large auditorium back at Storm Academy. Professor Caesar stood on the stage, with a large screen behind him. Professor Morningstar stood next to him as he announced the newly formed teams. The screen behind them showed the students in question. The current students were just walking off stage. As they left, the next four students walked up, beckoned forward by Professor Morningstar. Professor Caesar leaned in towards the mic. "Thistle Sora, Hazel Shizukana, Scarlet YoruNo, Loy Ginn. You retrieved the Scorpio Stones. You will work together as Team THSL. Led by … Thistle Sora!"

Applause erupted as the still weak Thistle smiled and waved.

"You see that?" Rusty gestured at Loy. "That could've been you." He trailed off some. "On a team with three hot girls. Lucky guy."

The now Team THSL walked off the stage, and Professor Morningstar beckoned Rusty and Zaffre up.

"Our turn buddy." Rusty grinned.

They walked up on stage along with their two new teammates.

"Zaffre Wellen, Franky Ginseng, Rusty Cooper, Ryku Shirogane. You retrieved the Virgo Stones. You will work together as team ZFRR, led by… Zaffre Wellen!"

Zaffre paled at the sound of his name. Seeing this, Rusty stepped forward to cover him. Rusty crouched down, pulled out his weapon, and fired a round into the air. As it exploded he shouted out. "Yeah Zaffre!" This gained him some disapproving looks from the professors, as well as a decent amount of applause and laughter from the other students. His friend's antics restored Zaffre's confidence, and he punched the air in joy.

Franky smiled. "Nice job Zaffre."

"Hey, thanks."

Professor Caesar stepped back as the students applauded the new team. He stepped next to Professor Morningstar, who was still glaring somewhat at Rusty. "This is going to be an interesting year Clarice." He smiled.

"Yeah…interesting." She said.

Author's note: And that ends my second chapter. I had fun writing it, especially the fight scenes. Please let me know what you thought. I would really like to know what you liked, what you disliked, what you want to know more about, and any general comments you have. I have a general idea where this story is going, but I'm mostly taking it chapter by chapter. Any feedback will help me determine where this story goes. The next Chapter will focus on the new teams adjusting to life at Storm Academy, and will feature a new Grimm. I hope you all look forward t it, and have a good day!


	3. Life As We Know It Part 1

Hello Readers! Xjentryn here with my third chapter of The Chronicles of ZFRR. This chapter will show the newly formed teams adjusting to their new lives at Storm. It will feature some new characters, as well as a new type of Grimm. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get this uploaded. I have to juggle it around work and school. I also make lots of revisions to make it as good as I can.

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, or any other fandom referenced. Nor do I own China, polar bears, a candlestick shop, or Pluto. That stuff is just way too darn expensive!

Warning: May contain mild swearing.

"Talking"

"_Thinking"_

_Memory_

**Sound effect**

"~Singing~"

"Congratulations on your newly formed teams!" Professor Caesar stood on stage, smiling and addressing the students. The last of the teams had just been announced. "You now have an exciting four years to look forward to with your new teammates. You will train together, learn together, and fight together. I wish you all the best!" He stepped back, and Professor Morningstar walked up to the mic.

"Classes will begin on Monday, so you have the weekend to get settled, explore the campus, and meet your teachers early if you so wish. The scrolls you all received will tell you where you will be living and your class schedule. School uniforms can be obtained in the main building, and they are required starting Monday. I advise you get acquainted with the campus, and be sure to not be late when classes begin." She stepped back, and she and the headmaster walked away.

The great hall leaked students onto the sidewalks, as the new teams all set out to get comfortable in their new home. Some sought after food, a few clusters went straight for training, and the majority of the masses set about finding their rooms. Zaffre and his team were among the last group. After popping out of the great hall, they scooched to the side, allowing others to pass. Franky currently had his scroll out to check their living arrangements. Meanwhile Zaffre was admiring their surroundings, Ryku stood motionless, watching the crowd, and Rusty hung from a nearby tree via his tail.

Upon successful coordinate determination Franky looked up at his teammates. "Looks like we're in Baker Hall."

"Hope the rooms are nice." Said Rusty. Epically (at least in his mind) dismounting his stationary wooden steed.

"From what I've read, they're the nicest dorms on campus. I've heard them referred to as the 'Truly Apical Rated Dorms In Storm'."

Rusty gave the green-head a confused look. "What does apical mean?"

"It means highest." Zaffre answered.

"Yay for big words!"

Franky glanced around, getting a feel for everything's location. "Here, they should be this way." He started off in the supposed direction of the dorms. Many of the other students were also headed that way, boosting Franky's certainty that they were correctly en route.

A short walk was all the four had to endure before they reached the residential halls. Most of the buildings looked about the same, only one really stuck out. It was a deep blue building, only two stories high. The sign out front read "B. Baker Hall."

"Looks like this is the place." Said Zaffre.

"Doesn't look quite as big as the others." Rusty pouted.

Franky gave him a reassuring look. "Don't worry, the rooms are decently sized. The architecture of this building just makes it seem smaller from the outside."

The team entered the building, and proceeded to their designated room. Thankfully it was on the first floor, so no stairs were involved. As they stepped in, Franky was shown to be right. The room was definitely a bit bigger than the average dorm, and while it had minimal furnishings, one could not deny that it was quite nice. Four beds, each with their own window, sat against the far wall. The sheets were bright white and the covers and pillows were a deep blue, similar to the color of the building. A small dresser sat on each side of the room, along with a medium closet.

"Looks like we'll be comfortable!" Zaffre smiled. "Let's get settled!"

Each of them picked a bed, and set their stuff down.

– **THSL –**

After Headmaster Caesar's welcoming of the new teams, two of the members of Team THSL wanted to go see their new room. The other two however had deemed it a better use of their time to have a race. It had seemed innocent enough at the time. Scarlet said she would beat them there, and Thistle took up the challenge. Loy and Hazel insisted that after her injury from the Death Stalker, Thistle should just take it easy, and they were right. Within the first minute Thistle had collapsed. Scarlet failed to notice and shot off, well past the dorms. Loy now supported the majority of his partner's weight, as the two slowly followed a hasty Hazel, who had gone to retrieve her own partner. Scarlet had had quite the head start, but Hazel was determined.

"SCARLET! STOP!" Hazel shouted with all the breath she could spare.

Scarlet seemed oblivious to her partner's pursuit, lost in the thrill of sprinting. Hazel panted in her efforts to keep up. Finally Scarlet paused and turned around, hoping to gloat. She donned a confused look when she noticed the only person there was a very out-of-breath Hazel. "Where's the silver medalist?"

"Back (gasp) there." Hazel tried to explain in between her lungs' mad grasps for fresh oxygen. "Thistle (pant) still weak (gasp) from injury."

"Oh." Scarlet looked sheepish. "I kinda forgot about that?"

Hazel couldn't, and didn't bother trying to, mask her disbelief. "Already?!"

Scarlet fidgeted nervously. "I wanted to run." She said innocently.

Hazel would've sighed if she weren't still catching her breath. "Let's just head back."

The sheepish coyote and tired hunter returned to find the injured bird and solemn samurai sitting on the steps of the dorm building. Loy shot Scarlet a look expressing his disapproval of her antics. "Sorry?" was all she could say. On the inside though, she still grinned gleefully at the joys of speed.

Loy directed a friendlier gaze at Hazel. "We tried following you, but Thistle just wasn't feeling up to it, so we came back here to rest."

Hazel nodded. "Understandable." She turned to look at their new residential structure. She had not gotten much of a glance of it when she sprinted past the first time. Other than the color, a deep blue, she could see nothing exceptionally different about this hall, but she knew to never judge a book by its cover.

"Well, let's head inside." Loy stood up, preparing to help his partner in.

Hazel came over to assist him, and they each took one of Thistle's arms and helped her up. Scarlet caught the door as the three-person-wide blob entered their new home. Unfortunately, the walk was not without stairs, but they managed.

"Here we are! 221!" Scarlet announced happily upon reaching their room. The four students stumbled in and admired their new living quarters.

"I see why people call Baker Hall the best." Thistle commented. "This is a sweet room."

Scarlet immediately jumped on one of the beds. "Wee!" She exclaimed in happiness. Despite still being annoyed at her for the race stunt, her teammates couldn't help but smile at the young pup's joy.

Hazel looked over at Loy. "This year isn't going to have many dull moments is it?"

Loy shook his head. "I seriously doubt it."

– **ZFRR –**

Team ZFRR had begun their move-in, and were all shuffling about getting their stuff brought in.. At the moment only two of them were within the room's confinements. Franky hung a landscape painting on the wall, while Zaffre set up his laptop.

"Nice painting." Zaffre commented, noticing the fine swirls of color.

"Thanks, my sister made it."

"She's pretty talented."

Franky smiled. "That's an understatement, she's exceptional." Looking around the room, he noticed a lack of blonde monkey men. "Where'd Rusty disappear to? I haven't seen him bring in anything for a little while."

"He noticed a team of girls moving their stuff to the second floor and volunteered to help." Zaffre shook his head smiling. "He just can't resist a pretty lady."

Franky chuckled and resumed straightening the painting. "I have noticed that."

Ryku walked in, his arms tugged down by a plain, black suitcase. "What's that Ryku?" Zaffre asked curiously.

Ryku looked at him with a mildly annoyed expression. "Dust." So far he had not been able to bring a single item in without someone attempting to start up a conversation with him.

Zaffre scanned Ryku's area and noticed a substantial lack of stuff compared to himself and his other two compatriots. "You don't seem to have much with you."

Ryku just shrugged and set his dust case under his bed.

"What a rousing conversation that was!" Zaffre said sarcastically while grinning, earning him a chuckle from Franky.

Rusty suddenly poked his head in the door. "Zaffy! Do you know where my fire trick is?"

"Which one? Why? And am I going to regret this?"

"The knife ball, hot girls, probably." Rusty's face showed that he was already very pleased with himself for whatever he planned to do.

Zaffre sighed. "Yeah, it's with your ammunition, which by the way was still a terrible place to put it."

Franky suddenly started laughing at nothing, gaining him some odd glances from his teammates. "Okay then." Said Rusty looking at the snickering woodsman. He turned back to Zaffre. "Thanks buddy!" And abruptly he disappeared out the door.

Zaffre took out a silver pocket watch and opened it, waiting. _"Wait for it…"_ He didn't have to wait long. Within a minute, there was a loud explosion, and some noticeable shrieks, which could mean only one thing. Zaffre grinned. _"I told you so man."_

– **THSL –**

Scarlet's ears perked up. "Did you hear that?"

"I doubt anyone didn't hear it." Said Loy, trying to rub the echoes out of his head. A loud explosion from nearby outside had just caught Team THSL completely by surprise.

Hazel walked to the window to see what all the commotion was about. Outside she could see a cloud of dirt surrounding a small group of people. Clearly they had not been prepared for it either, as most of them were now on the ground next to spilled belongings. "Looks like somebody had an accident. I hope they're okay."

Scarlet darted over to the next window to see for herself. "Hey! It's that monkey boy from initiation!"

Hazel nodded as the aforementioned Faunus came into view amongst the dust. "What was his name? Rusty?"

"Yeah, that's him!"

Loy shook his head slightly, still struggling to get the lingering boom out of his head. "Is he alright?"

"He's actually laughing. And there're a couple terrified girls running from him." Hazel answered. "Looks like a failed pick-up attempt."

"That boy did seem like quite the flirt."

Hazel withdrew her head from the window. "Not unlike your partner."

Thistle turned to the group and winked before returning to her unpacking.

"Case and point."

– **ZFRR –**

Team ZFRR stood proudly at the door of their room, having finally moved all their stuff in. On the far left of the room sat Ryku's bed. Nothing exceptionally fancy in that area, Ryku didn't bring much with him. A small nightstand and a clock sat next to his bed, but everything else of his was either in the closet or under his bed. The next bed over was Zaffre's. He had set up a small computer desk next to it that could rotate over the bed for ease of use. A blue shield with a silver rim also hung on the wall above his pillow. Next was Rusty's bed. Already the covers on it were completely messed up as they were bound to stay for the rest of the semester. Rusty had set up a large boom box on the left hand side of his bed, and the wall behind it was covered in posters of rock bands, sports teams, and videogames. Last was Franky's bed. He had swapped out the normal blue covers for some forest green ones with plant patterns on them. A large painting hung on the wall beside his bed, and a small set of wind chimes hung from his window. He also had a large trunk resting at the foot of his bed.

Across from their beds, three new large pieces of furniture had been moved in. On the left of the door, a large cabinet stood with glass doors. Inside was a nice set of various blades, along with blade-making materials. On the other side of the room's entrance, another cabinet stood, this one shorter and wider with solid wood doors. This cabinet contained various forms of ammunition for most weapons, along with a few weapon maintenance tools. The cabinet had been a gift to Rusty upon his acceptance to Storm, and he'd graciously given his teammates permission to use it. The final piece of new furniture was a bookcase, loaded almost completely full, sitting next to the dresser on Franky's side of the room.

Zaffre smiled. "A job well done guys."

"Agreed." Franky nodded.

Zaffre went and sat on his bed. "Well, now that we're moved in, I think we should do proper introductions. So, why don't we all say our name, where we're from, and some of our favorite activities? Also, since we're going to be fighting together, tell us your weapon, semblance, and preferred fighting style. Here, I'll go first."

Ryku, Rusty, and Franky all took seats and listened intently. "I'm Zaffre. I'm from Ithalese City. I have been best friends with that idiot for about twelve years now." Zaffre gestured at Rusty who smiled proudly. "I enjoy spending time with my friends, and making things. You've all seen my blade cabinet. I don't make a wide variety of weapons, but I love making blades." He pulled one of his swords. The katana-like blade sprung out abnormally far and widened into a massive two-handed mega sword. "I made these babies myself about three years ago. They're called Hakai and Kōhai"

"They seem quite heavy." Franky commented.

"Oh yeah. But for me it's not a problem." Zaffre tossed the blade in his hand to prove his point, luckily managing to not slice the ceiling. "My semblance gives me increased strength and balance, allowing me to wield these as if they were fencing swords." Zaffre spun the blade in his hand with a smile. "I practice with them a lot. Sword fighting is just kinda my thing. I can also combine them into a giant boomerang." He put the sword away and held up one of his metal gloves. Thanks to these, I don't have to worry about slicing myself when handling them. These gloves are completely blade and bullet proof, and they have a special grip in the fingertips. This way I can get a good grasp on my or my opponent's blades no problem." Zaffre put the glove down. "Also, my blades are very resistant to magnets, electricity, heat, or anything else you might throw at them."

"So I take it you're primarily a close range fighter?" Franky asked.

"Yeah. Don't get me wrong, guns and other projectiles are cool, but I prefer a good melee fight." He turned toward Rusty. "You're up monkey brain."

"Okay!" Rusty beamed. "Hi everyone, I'm Rusty! It's great to be here! You know, just last week I was in this dump of a place, it had a sign that said 'I'm sorry, we're open'."

"This isn't Last Comic Standing Rusty, just give us your introduction." Zaffre said, though admittedly chuckling slightly.

"Eh, fine. I'm also from Ithalese City, and, as has been stated, I've been stuck with this guy for a dozen years. Though sometimes it feels like longer." He dodged a thrown pillow from Zaffre. "My favorite activities are being awesome, and girls."

"Oh yeah, he loves being girls!" This time it was Zaffre who did the dodging.

"That's an interesting weapon you have Rusty." Franky noted.

Rusty whipped out his precious, anxious to show off its beauty. "Oh yeah! The spikes on this baby will shred through any opponent! And it also functions as a small rocket launcher." He grinned mischievously. "I call it Metal Mischief."

Franky chuckled at the name. "So what's you're fighting style?"

"I don't know if I'd call what he does 'fighting' so much as 'screwing around on the battlefield'." Zaffre interjected.

Rusty shrugged. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." He sheathed his weapon. "As for my semblance, I don't usually reveal it, it's more fun to surprise people. But in this case, I'll make an exception. I can manipulate gravity. I can alter the gravity between you and any other object, including the Earth, to be as large as double the planet's normal gravity, or down to a fraction of it."

Franky whistled. "Wow, that's a powerful ability."

"Yeah, but he has to be careful with it. It can be VERY disorienting." warned Zaffre. "So how about you Franky?"

"Ok. My name's Franky. I'm from Oan. It's a small forest village located to the west of here. I chose to come here because I want to make a difference in the world. My village is a peaceful one, and I want to share that peace and kindness with the rest of the world. I like to travel, and see new things. There's a lot to be learned, and I enjoy being privileged to any of that knowledge."

"Cool." Said Zaffre. Rusty, on the other hand, looked a little bored at the concept of learning.

"As far as my fighting, I prefer the non-lethal measures. That's why I use this." He held up his wooden staff. "I made it myself. It's called Génni̱si̱. It can spray gas out either end. I can also throw the gas in the form of pellets. Very few of my gases are lethal. The ones that are are reserved strictly for the creatures of Grimm. I also carry these." He extended the wrist of the hand not currently wielding Génni̱si̱. On it rested a golden gauntlet with several darts attached. "Knock-out darts. Not always sufficient for large enemies, but they can still immobilize a limb."

"Do your gases work on you?" Rusty asked.

"I'd imagine that after working with them, you'd build up any immunity." Said Zaffre.

"It's true, I am more resistant to them than most. But I'm constantly changing and evolving them, so no one's ever immune. After all, if I am, others could be too."

"Cool." Said Zaffre. "What about your semblance?"

Franky smiled, and suddenly stood right in front of Zaffre, a trail of green leaves fading behind him. "Speed."

Rusty looked overjoyed. "Sweet! Oh the things I could've gotten away with if I had that!"

Zaffre shook his head and shuddered, a million bad scenarios racing through his consciousness. "I can only imagine. The turd incident would've been nothing in comparison." Franky gave him a puzzled look. "You don't want to know."

The three turned to Ryku. "Just leaves you mate!" Said Rusty.

Ryku looked at them. "You already know my name."

"Ah c'mon." Zaffre begged.

"We want to hear it from you." Franky encouraged.

Ryku rolled his eyes. While he saw the value in becoming more familiar with his teammates, he'd have been perfectly happy if they'd skipped him. Clearly though they were not going to let it go. "Fine. I'm Ryku. And I don't do backstory."

"Where are you from?" Franky asked.

Ryku looked at him, annoyed that they were still asking. "Jotunn."

Rusty jumped over next to him. "Why do you wear that bandana?" His hand reached to grab it, too impatient to wait for a response.

Ryku snatched his wrist out of the air and glared at him. "Touch the bandana again, and you die."

Rusty yanked his hand free. "Fine, sheesh."

"At least tell us your weapon, semblance, and fighting style." Zaffre insisted.

Ryku sighed. "Fine. I use sniper that shifts into a glaive."

"What do you call it?" Rusty asked

"I don't. Names just form unnecessary attachments to things."

"Well you gotta call it something. How about…Black Blood?"

"Why Black Blood?" Franky asked curiously.

Rusty shrugged. "I dunno, it just sounds cool."

Ryku looked at the way-too-happy monkey Faunus. "It's just a tool. It doesn't need a name." His stare returned to the two less annoying people in the room. "As for my semblance, it's called Digital Read."

"I thought you don't name things?" Rusty mocked.

"I didn't name it, that's just what it's called."

"I've read about it." Franky spoke up. "It let's your mind work like a computer. You can perform diagnostics, trace trajectories, predict cause and effect, recognize patterns, exploit weaknesses, and pick out the most minute details of things. It's a very useful ability. It just has one major downside. Random and illogical events and actions throw it off."

"Don't fight Rusty then." Zaffre joked.

Ryku nodded at Franky, confirming his statement. "And my fighting style: Long range and stealthy." The coloring on his clothes began to bend and shift until it matched the wall behind him. "My entire outfit is imbued with dust to allow it to blend in, and to protect me from anything unfriendly." His clothes recolored themselves once more, returning to their previous appearance. "Happy?"

Zaffre nodded. "Okay then. Now that we all know each other, I say we get a better feel for this campus."

"I'm in!" Cheered Rusty. "I'd love to check out the battle grounds!"

"I wouldn't mind seeing our classrooms." Added Franky. Ryku just shrugged.

"Alright, let's go!"

– **ZFRR –**

"This way guys." Zaffre led the team through the woods. Franky followed with great curiosity as to where they were going. Ryku on the other hand, followed a bit more reluctantly. Rusty leapt around up in the trees, enjoying his green kingdom. He wasn't paying much attention to the others, but then he already knew where they were going. The team had not long left their dorm when Zaffre mentioned he and Rusty knew of a place he'd like to show them. Franky, ever curious, was more than happy to see it. Ryku hadn't been as enthused, but they'd convinced him to tag along anyway.

"You said you guys found this place the first day we were here?" Asked Franky.

"Yeah." Replied Zaffre. "We were just exploring randomly, and happened upon this place by accident. It's really cool, you'll like it."

Franky smiled. "I look forward to it then."

The three continued walking, with Rusty keeping a high view of them. The woods were nice and quiet today. Most students were still moving in, or exploring the campus itself. Others still chose to venture into the city. Team ZFRR had not seen even a single other person in the woods.

The group continued walking until they came upon a particularly thick line of trees. "Right through here." Zaffre walked over to a small gap and crouched through. Rusty sprung down from his perch to enter. Franky followed him in, and Ryku brought up the rear.

"Whoa…" Franky stood in awe. In front of him was approximately a football field's worth of grass, with a small lake clinging to the end. Flowerbeds sprung up everywhere he looked. "This is amazing…"

Rusty grinned. "We thought you'd get a kick out of this."

Even Ryku was impressed. He'd become so entranced he'd completely forgotten his teammates had dragged him there against his will.

"Nice huh?" Zaffre said from right behind him, almost making Ryku jump. "I call it Serenity Valley."

"I can see why." Franky nodded. "I love it here."

"I figured we could use this as our own private area for studying, training, and relaxing."

"And for dates." Added Rusty with a grin. He snapped his fingers on each hand and pointed both index fingers at Zaffre as he said it.

"You know Rusty, it kind of defeats the purpose of having a secret location if you reveal it to every attractive girl on campus."

Rusty hung his head and sighed. "Fine."

"I'd say put it to a vote on any given occasion." Franky chipped in. "If Rusty, or anyone else wants to bring a guest here, we vote."

"I'm good with that." Zaffre agreed. Ryku nodded his approval.

"If I must." Said the monkey Faunus.

"Excellent! We're all in agreement." Zaffre glanced at each of his teammates. "So what do you all say we head back to campus and see what else we can find?" The other three nodded, and the group exited Serenity Valley.

– **THSL –**

Team THSL stood outside in a circle on the grass a little ways away from their dorm. "Ok guys, let's see what you've got!" After taking a quick look at the campus, Thistle had insisted on a training match. She said it would be a good way to gauge their combat skills. "Who's first?"

Scarlet stepped forward. "Bring it Birdie!" She whipped her arms to the side, the claws springing forth from her gauntlets. Thistle smiled and spun her spear to the side. Scarlet charged. Thistle shifted her weapon into its crossbow forms, and began firing. Scarlet zapped the arrows out of the air, and shot an electric blast under the onslaught. The blast struck Thistle, pausing her attack. Dazed for a moment, Thistle shook it off, and bellowed an ear-splitting screech. Scarlet grabbed her ears in pain as she fell to the ground. As she shuddered from the sound, Scarlet managed to drop one hand to the ground and send out vibrations. The resulting mini-quake cost Thistle her footing, and proved sufficient enough to stop her scream. As quick as she could, Scarlet charged in, claws ready to strike. Thistle shifted her weapons back into a spear, and charged to counter.

**SMACK!**

Just a few feet from each other, the two collided into a blue force field. Hazel stepped forward, shaking her head. "What's wrong with you two?"

"What?" Scarlet asked innocently.

"It's our first day as a team, and you want to fight?"

"To properly gauge our strengths." Said Thistle, rubbing a now sore spot on her head.

Loy stepped in. "I think we got plenty of that the other day in the forest. Shouldn't we explore campus more? Maybe learn about each other in a more peaceful manner?"

"Not to mention, you need to heal." Added Hazel.

Thistle sighed. "Yeah, I suppose so."

Scarlet groaned. "Ah, but I wanted to go with the zap zap boom approach."

Hazel smiled. "There'll be plenty of time for that later."

Scarlet lit up. "Promise?"

Her eagerness made Hazel chuckle. "Promise."

Scarlet beamed. "Ok then, let's explore!" She took off running.

"Wait!" Thistle shouted, charging after her. Hazel and Loy also struggled to keep up. Scarlet ran happily between the buildings, zigzagging somewhat with no real destination in mind. She began to near the edge of campus which was bordered by a forest. "Hold up!" Thistle continued to scream at the energetic young redhead, with no success. Scarlet darted excitedly toward the tree line, before veering off to the side. She sprinted right along side the forest now, failing to notice a group of students emerging from it ahead.

**SMACK!**

Scarlet slammed into a familiar blonde monkey boy, sending him flying back. She also took a nice tumble to the ground, landing flat on her stomach.

"Rusty are you ok?" Franky asked worriedly as he stepped out from the trees.

Rusty, lying on his back, laughed. "Woo-hoo! Let's do that again!"

Scarlet's teammates finally caught up to her. "And just where were you off to in such a hurry?" Thistle demanded while leaning on Loy for support.

Scarlet sat up, still smiling. "Apparently here."

Hazel stepped forward. "I'm sorry about that you guys."

Zaffre, who had not stopped laughing since watching Rusty get plowed down like a bowling pin, responded. "Don't worry about that, it was hysterical!"

Ryku looked at him like he was an idiot, while Franky smiled lightly, relieved that no one was hurt. Hazel proceeded to help Scarlet up, while Zaffre looked at Rusty. "Want a hand?" He asked.

"Sure." Answered Rusty. Zaffre grinned mischievously and began clapping. Rusty, also grinning, rolled his eyes and jumped to his feet. "Saw that coming."

"What were you guys doing in the forest anyway?" Asked Thistle.

Rusty shrugged. "Exploring."

"We wanted to get a feel for the surrounding area." Continued Zaffre. "We were just about to check out some of the locations on campus."

"Seems like an odd order." Loy commented.

"Well we're an odd group of people." Zaffre responded.

"What are you guys up to?" Asked Franky.

"Well, we were going to explore campus as well, before this one took off like a crazy person." Thistle said, gesturing at Scarlet.

"Would you like to accompany us on our exploration?" The green-haired boy asked.

Thistle shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

"Where were you guys wanting to see first?" Asked Loy.

"Personally, I would like to see the sparring halls." Said Zaffre.

"I wouldn't mind checking those out either." Added Hazel.

Zaffre turned to face his blonde friend. "Whadda ya say Rusty? Want to check out our future battle scenes?"

The monkey Faunus shook his head. "Nah, I'll pass. You guys go on ahead."

Zaffre was completely taken aback by his friend's answer. "Seriously? Since when do things like this not appeal to you?"

Rusty shrugged. "It sounds cool and all, but I want to check out the other eateries around here." He turned to his other teammates. "You guys mind tagging along? I have no sense of direction."

Zaffre was completely shocked. _"First he turns down a visit to the sparring halls, and now he doesn't want to get lost? What the heck is wrong with him?"_ He looked at his friend carefully "Are you sure man?"

Rusty gave him a look that said 'seriously?'. "Dude, food."

"_At least that makes sense."_ "Ok then."

Rusty turned to the other members of Team THSL. "And what about you lovely ladies and equally lovely gentleman? Care to join us?"

"Depends, is there gonna be another food fight?" Asked Scarlet.

Rusty shrugged, but also grinned mischievously. "Mayyyyyyybe."

Scarlet lit up. "Ok!"

"Well I wouldn't want to miss that." Said Zaffre. "Maybe I should just tag along with you."

"Nah." Said Rusty. "You guys wanted to go see the sparring halls, so go on. We'll meet up later."

"Ok then." Zaffre turned to Thistle and Loy. "And you guys?"

"_If there's a food fight, I want to be there to kick that little coyote's butt."_ Thought Thistle. "I'll go with Scarlet, see if we get food and a show."

Hazel grimaced slightly. "Are you guys gonna start again if I leave you alone?"

Thistle fainted shock. "Wha? We wouldn't do that!"

Hazel raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh."

"Besides, we have these fine gentlemen accompanying us."

"Don't worry." Added Loy. "I'll keep an eye on them."

Hazel relaxed when she heard that. "Alright. We'll see you guys shortly." She turned to Zaffre. "I think the sparring halls are this way."

"After you."

Hazel and Zaffre left to find the battle areas. Rusty and the others turned and started off to find eating establishments. As the two groups split, Scarlet walked up to Rusty and whispered in his ear. "I saw what you did there. Nice work." Rusty smiled and winked at her.

– **ZFRR – THSL –**

Thistle lay on the grass, holding her side and panting. Loy sat next to her, concerned about her health, and sanity. Ryku stood nearby, lost in thought. Just moments ago Scarlet had become distracted by something and taken off running…for the third time so far. Franky and Rusty were once again trying to catch her.

"That girl…has energy." Panted Thistle.

Loy gave her a slightly irritated look. "How many times do I have to tell you NOT to chase after her?"

She turned her head to the side. "Ooh, I like a man who takes charge."

Ryku rolled his eyes as he listened. _"We been together as a group for fifteen minutes and all she's done is strain herself and flirt. Why on earth is she their leader?"_

Loy ignored Thistle's comment, and looked up to see Franky and Rusty carrying Scarlet back…again. The first time she'd been knocked out by one of Franky's darts. The second time she'd been dazed by one of his gases. Rusty and Thistle had particularly enjoyed that because it led to Scarlet kissing a brick wall. This time her hands and feet were tied. Franky and Rusty set her down near the others.

"It's a good thing I carry rope." Said Franky.

Scarlet, lying on her back, smiled up at the group. "Gag me!" She shouted and began rolling around giggling.

"I think she's still got some of that gas in her system." Loy commented.

"Don't worry, it should be gone very soon." Franky reassured him. Though he knew the gas had already left her system. This was all her now.

Scarlet continued to roll and giggle, much to Rusty's amusement. "Can we keep her?" He asked Franky with big puppy-dog eyes.

"She's a person Rusty."

"That doesn't answer my question."

Scarlet used her gauntlet claws to cut her ropes. She then ran on all fours over the Rusty and rubbed her head on his shin, much like a cat. "Keep me!" She cheered.

Loy stood up. "I thought we were going to explore the food locations?"

Rusty and Scarlet's heads shot toward him. "Food?!" They said in unison.

"Yes, where we were going before you took off, again."

"Calm down Loy, they're just having fun." Said Franky.

"Yeah, I know. But with Thistle in her condition, I'd rather keep things mellow."

Thistle looked up at him. "Aww, you DO care!"

Franky chuckled. "Well then, shall we continue?"

Loy nodded and helped his partner to her feet. Ryku displayed no emotion and gave no response other than turning to resume walking. The group of six once more ventured on in search of the mystical thing known as 'food' and the sacred shops that sold it. Scarlet continued to giggle relentlessly and dart towards anything that caught her attention. This mostly applied to shiny things. Loy remained thankful that at least now she didn't venture far from the group.

After around five minutes, give or take, Scarlet thrust her nose in the air and wiggled her coyote ears. She breathed in a long sniff. "Waffles!" Indeed, there was a mobile food cart just ahead that appeared to be carrying the indented breakfast dish. Scarlet ran over to it, once again on all fours. She crouched in front of it and looked up at the two people working it. Both were older students, one boy and one girl. Smiling, Scarlet panted puppy-style and wiggled her butt in lieu of a tail. "Arf!"

The girl behind the counter looked at Scarlet with a strange expression. "Uh, can I help you?"

"Apologies." Franky walked up to the cart along with the rest of the gang. "She's a little loopy at the moment."

"He gave her something that was supposed to subdue her." Added Loy. "We were tired of chasing her around all day."

The boy behind the cart looked down at Scarlet. "It seems to have had the opposite effect."

"You should've seen her before." Rusty smiled at the thought.

"Maybe. Still, are you sure she isn't hopped up on drugs?"

"Positive. I didn't give her anything like that." Replied the woodsman. "Last thing I would want is to get her addicted to something."

"Oh I bet you're very addicting." The girl behind the cart said to Franky, absentmindedly twirling her hair with her right index finger.

Rusty stepped up to her, blocking her view of Franky. "If you want addicting, just give me five minutes of your time!"

"Yeah, uh-huh." She pushed Rusty to the side, paying him almost no mind.

Rusty stood next to Loy. "What the heck?" He muttered quietly. Loy gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder.

"So, what can I get for you Handsome?" The girl asked Franky.

Franky smiled politely at her. "What are our options?"

The girl just smiled at him, continuing to twirl her hair. "Ahem." The boy next to her cleared his throat. "We're selling waffles. You can get up to two toppings on each one you buy." He gestured to the side. Various toppings ranging from fruits to sauces lay in wait. Scarlet hovered over them, practically drooling everywhere.

"Sounds good." Franky turned around to face his group. "Whadda ya say guys? My treat."

"You're so sweet." The awe-struck cart girl commented.

"You know, I've been known to be pretty sweet myself." Rusty tried again. Once again he failed. The girl paid his comment no heed. Realizing his attempts were in vain, he sighed in defeat. Loy gave him another pat on the back. "I'll take mine with bananas and peanut butter." Rusty said to the cart boy.

The rest of the group each took a moment to chose their preferred toppings for a waffle. All except Ryku, who declined the waffle offer, instead stepping back away from other life forms. As the others decided, they each placed their order, and a few moments later received their steamy perfection. The cart girl gawked at Franky the entire time, much to Rusty's annoyment. Her cart coworker seemed equal peeved by this, as it meant he ended up doing all the work. Shortly everyone had their chosen masterpiece and began eating on a nearby bench. Franky received his own waffle, paid the pair behind the cart, and joined his group munching away on waffle deliciousness.

"These are good." Loy noted after a couple minutes. He had stuck to the simple topping of powdered sugar.

"Very." Thistle agreed between bites of her chocolate and banana covered masterpiece.

"Yeah, thanks Franky!" Rusty happily wolfed down a waffle drenched in peanut butter and banana slices.

"You're welcome." Franky responded to the group with a smile. "I'm glad you guys like them."

"Some are more pleased than the rest." Loy noted, referencing Scarlet. After scarfing down her waffle faster than humanly possible, she had finally calmed down and resided to sleeping in a curled ball with her head now on Franky's lap.

"Are you guys sure she's not a kitten?" Asked Rusty.

"About as sure as we are that you're not a lizard." Thistle joked.

Rusty slid his tail over his shoulder and waved it at Thistle. "No scaly, all sexy!"

Thistle smirked. "Dream on monkey boy!"

Two guys the same age as the group passed by, both staring with bewilderment at Franky's lap. "Dude, that's Pyrrah!" One of them whispered. They both paused for a split to prolong their gawk before continuing on. Thistle face-palmed and shook her head. The attention her teammate gathered from the resemblance got on Thistle's nerves, and secretly made her a little jealous.

"Is everyone really that dense?" She asked herself.

"To be fair, I thought the same thing initially." Franky commented. "The resemblance is uncanny." He gave Scarlet's hair a friendly stroke. A content rumble then came from her throat.

"Dude, did she just purr?" Asked Rusty. "She's totally a cat!"

"She certainly has a lot of the mannerisms of one, I'll tell you that." Loy agreed.

"True, but you can tell by looking at her that she's definitely canine." Franky gestured at one of her ears and gave it a light scratch. Eyelids still sealed, Scarlet's sleep smile grew and she snuggled in closer. Rusty made no attempt to hide his jealousy that Franky had a cute girl on his lap. Loy, on the other hand, gave Franky a somewhat disapproving look. Noticing this, Franky asked him, "What?"

"You just seem to be treating her less like a person and more like an animal."

"Please don't think I'm at all prejudice!" Franky hastily responded. "Quite the contrary in fact! I just noticed that she likes acting like a puppy and enjoys it when others play along. I don't do it to mock her, I do it because she likes it."

"Pretty boy here seems to know how to get on everyone's good side." Rusty added with an air of annoyance. The fact that a girl passed by as he said that and smiled at Franky didn't help.

Franky just shrugged. "I believe in being happy. So why not spread it around?"

"Oh I'm great at spreading things." Thistle said with a wink.

"I'll take some of that action!" Rusty's attitude changed to excited upon her comment.

"You couldn't handle me!"

Had Zaffre been there, he might have been able to stop Rusty from saying what he said next. "Baby I will handle every bit of you up and down like a pro!"

Now it was Franky and Loy's turn to face-palm. Luckily for Rusty, Thistle was as flirtatious as he was, and so merely laughed it off. In most cases, he would have been severely slapped or worse.

"You are gonna get yourself into trouble one day." Loy warned him.

Rusty simply shrugged. "Meh. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt."

"Arf!" Scarlet barked in her sleep. The unexpected outburst caused a ripple of laughter amongst the group.

Rusty laid down in the grass grinning. "I wonder if Zaffre's little quest is going as well as ours."

"The sparring areas shouldn't be hard to find, I just don't know if they're open yet." Replied Franky.

Rusty's grin grew and he chuckled lightly. "Right, the sparring halls."

– **ZFRR – THSL –**

Zaffre and Hazel strolled through campus in search of the sparring halls. Hazel had a general idea of where they were, but Zaffre was one hundred percent clueless. They passed by various buildings, some academic, and some more entertainment oriented.

"They should be just up here." Said Hazel, pointing ahead.

"Have you been by them yet?" Asked Zaffre. Most of their walk thus far had been in moderate silence, and he was really hoping something he said would spark a conversation.

"No, but I checked the campus map. It showed them in this area."

"Ok, cool."

The two walked in continued silence for a moment.

"I have to say, I'm really surprised Rusty didn't want to join us." Zaffre commented in another desperate attempt for continued exchanged words.

"He does seem like the type who would enjoy a place meant for fighting."

"You have no idea. And he seemed pretty excited about the idea earlier."

Hazel could think of one reason, the thought of which gave her a slight smile. "Maybe he wants to spend some more time with one of my teammates."

Zaffre mentally hit his head for not seeing it. "That would explain his sudden change of heart about the sparring halls and why he wanted a guide. He was probably hoping more people would come with us. If I'd realized it then, I would've tried to help him out."

"I'm sure he'll do fine on his own. In all honesty I'm glad the rest of my team stayed with him. Thistle and Scarlet have been a bit at odds it seems, and I hate to think how a sparring area would affect that."

"All we would need is some popcorn. Enjoy the show!"

Hazel laughed. "Haha. Probably. Hopefully Loy can keep them in check though."

The two of them stopped in front of a rather large, looming building. The bottom half was typical brick, but the upper half appeared to be majority windows. "This looks like it." Said Hazel. The two young students stepped inside. A reception desk rested in the front, with turnstiles on the left, and a metal fence on the right. Behind the desk was battle room after battle room. Four smaller ones sat on the left, and two very large ones opposed them on the right.

Zaffre and Hazel walked up to the desk. A woman sat behind it. Her appearance suggested thirties, clearly not a working student. "Hello." She greeted warmly. "Welcome to Sparring Hall Beta."

"Hey." Responded Zaffre while awing at the sight behold unto him. "This place looks awesome…" His words trailed off in amazement. He had seen sparring halls before, and there was nothing special about the décor of this particular one, it was just significantly larger than the ones he'd seen before. Posters and flyers of warriors and events decorated the walls. Chairs and tables stood in the middle of the great temple, offering a place for students to impatiently wait on their turn in the battlegrounds.

"Indeed." Smiled the receptionist.

"How many training rooms are there total?" Asked Hazel.

"There are four of these buildings located on campus, meant for all your teams' training needs. In addition, there are several designated outdoor locations. Each building has a total of thirteen rooms on a total of three different levels. The first and second floor each have four one-on-one rooms, and two team battle rooms. Visit the environment desk in the back to spice up your fights. Of course the best battles are held in the thirteenth room in the basement. Down there is where you will find the mega battle room, where multiple teams can train against each other in a variety of conditions."

"Sweet!" Said Zaffre. "Can we go in?"

The receptionist nodded. "You'll need to use your scrolls to swipe in. Once classes begin you can also book these rooms for certain times and days."

"Cool."

Zaffre and Hazel each pulled out their scrolls and scanned them for entry. Zaffre went through first, with Hazel close behind. Zaffre turned around to face her. "So, up or down?" He mentally snickered at alternate meanings to his words.

Hazel looked around. "If the second floor is similar to this, let's take a quick peek at it first. Save that mega battle room for last."

"Sounds good."

The staircase resided on the left side of the building. Zaffre led the way over and the two proceeded up it. The second floor did indeed look much like the first. There were the same six rooms located in approximately the same position. The walls between the rooms were completely opaque, but the walls of the building itself were ninety percent transparent windows. Zaffre and Hazel walked between the rooms, taking a peek into each as they did. The smaller rooms were pretty simple. A basic, rectangular room with enough space for two person combat with a couple spectators. The team rooms were similar, only larger. More tables and soft chairs were scattered around between the battle rooms.

"Pretty simple." Said Hazel.

"Yeah, though I guess they don't need to be any more complicated."

"I wonder what that 'environment desk' she mentioned is."

"Let's go check it out."

After their extraordinarily brief visit to the upper level, Zaffre and Hazel proceeded back down the stairs to the first floor. At the bottom, Zaffre glanced to the left. All the way to the back, he saw the previously mentioned desk with a very large door behind it. "Over here." He and Hazel walked over to the empty desk. "Doesn't look like anyone's here."

Hazel looked slightly disappointed, as did Zaffre, until the large door suddenly opened and an older student walked out with a clipboard. He seemed pretty focused on whatever he was doing, but he was kind enough to spare the two a glance. "Oh, hello. I'm sorry but the environment desk is closed until Monday. I'm just doing inventory and stocking."

Hazel stepped up to the desk. "If you don't mind my asking, what exactly is the environment desk?"

He set his clipboard down on the desk and smiled, the chance to help out a pretty young thing like Hazel getting the better of him. "Well, the rooms here are for straight battle. But sometimes students wish to train with … obstacles. We lend out those obstacles here." He opened the door behind him so that they could see in. The door led to a massive storage room filled with all sorts of items. Large fake boulders, crates, weapons, tables, chairs, and countless other things sat on shelves. "Students can check these out anytime once classes begin. They allow for new twists on battles, to help improve various skills."

"Wow." Zaffre awed. "But wouldn't you guys have a problem with things getting destroyed?"

The older student acknowledged Zaffre's comment, but barely took his gaze off the attractive female. "Almost always. Let's just say some of the staff are particularly good at repairing." Smiling at opportunity he asked, "Would you like to take a look inside?"

"I thought you said it was closed." Hazel questioned.

"Well, I suppose I can make an exception for you."

Hazel smiled politely. "That's kind of you, but I'll wait until it opens."

The older student nodded politely, but was noticeable disappointed. "In that case, I must return to my work." He spun around and returned to the storage room.

"_I would have liked to see everything in there, but it was pretty clear his invitation did not extend to Zaffre, and that would've been rude."_ Hazel thought.

Zaffre turned to face her. While it didn't show externally, he was quite happy his new friend had opted to hang with him rather than the other guy. "So then, mega battle room?"

She smiled at him. "Let's do it!"

The two of them backtracked to the staircase, but this time around they took the descending path. As they headed down Zaffre noticed that these stairs were decently longer than the stairs heading skyward. When they reached the bottom a long hallway stretched out before them, a set of double doors barricading the end. The two students approached the doors, and Hazel tried the handle. It barely moved. "Locked."

"Looks like they don't want students in yet." Zaffre noted.

Hazel was understandably disappointed, but decided to let it go. "Oh well, let's just head out."

"One sec." Zaffre walked up to the door, and slipped a small knife out of his tunic. The knife's blade was oddly curved; different than any pocketknife Hazel had seen. The blade was also fairly dark. It had somewhat of a shimmer to it. Zaffre slipped the knife between the two doors, and wiggled it for a moment. Turning to Hazel he said, "Try it now."

"_Did he just…"_ Hazel once again attempted to open the door. This time however, she succeeded. "Aren't you worried about getting in trouble?"

"I don't see anything telling us to stay out. And I'm curious about this 'mega room'." He smiled at her. "After you."

Hazel smiled back. "Ok then." She entered the next room, followed closely by Zaffre.

This new room was massive. Every wall but the one they had entered through had a large stack of currently empty bleachers. In the center of room, taking up most of the space, a large glass box connected the floor and ceiling. The door into said box sat about twenty feet in front of them, with something resembling a control panel standing next to it. Zaffre and Hazel ignored the panel at first, instead walking around the glass box, admiring it. The inside was completely bare. A simple, flat, stone floor, and an identical ceiling existed as its entire contents. Even so, the box had to be at least a couple hundred feet in each direction. After the less-than-short journey around it, Zaffre and Hazel returned to the box's entrance, and examined the panel. It had a scroll reader next to three buttons on top. The left button was blue, the middle one green, and the right one red. Beneath them were other variously colored buttons, each with a symbol. A light blue one with a snowflake on it, a dark gray one with a cloud on it, and a red one with a flame on it were just some of the different options.

"Wonder what this does." Zaffre pondered out loud. He pulled out his scroll and held it over the scroll reader.

"Are you sure you want to do that? They probably monitor it." Said Hazel.

"We do actually."

Both teens jumped at the voice and turned around to see Headmaster Caesar standing calmly behind them. Zaffre paled. The headmaster smiled. "Don't worry you two, you're not in trouble. Curiosity is only natural, and there's no reason you can't be here."

"Then why was the door locked?" Asked Zaffre.

"This room needs a few tweaks before we can let students use it. We also require students to earn the privilege."

"Oh." Said Zaffre sheepishly. "I'm sorry."

The headmaster looked at him. "But why? That knife trick of yours was very clever. A normal knife or lock pick would not get you in here. So tell me, where'd you get that one?"

Zaffre pulled it back out. "I made it, after one of Rusty's shenanigans. The blade has a special electromagnetic touch that opens electronically sealed doors without setting off alarms."

Hazel looked at him with a puzzled expression. "What did Rusty do to cause you to make that?"

"He got himself locked in a room on a school tour of a weapon factory. It took a couple hours before they got him out. I figured a blade like this could come in handy, should someone or thing important be locked out of reach." He slid it back into his pocket. "Especially since that wasn't the first time that had happened to him."

Headmaster Caesar smiled at him. "Well Mr. Wellen, I'd say that little invention of yours is enough to earn you the use of this room for today."

Zaffre smiled. "Thank you sir!"

"But sir" said Hazel, "I thought you said the room needed fine-tuning?"

"In a couple places yes, but I can give you a demonstration if you wish."

Hazel and Zaffre looked at each other, then at the headmaster, both of them smiling widely now. "Absolutely!" Said Zaffre.

Headmaster Caesar smiled at their enthusiasm. "Then please scan your scroll, and push the blue button." Zaffre did so. A whirring noise could be heard after he did, and the door to the glass box opened up. "Step inside." Zaffre and Hazel obliged and turned back to face their headmaster. "Now pay attention." He pushed the blue button, closing the door, then pushed the green button. Small lights all around the edges of the box lit up, and the symbol buttons each began to give off a pulsing glow. The headmaster then pushed the snowflake button. The floor and ceiling inside the box began to shift and change. Mounds appeared on the floor, and snow began falling from the roof. In just a minute the entire box was like one big blizzard.

Zaffre and Hazel both shivered, but neither noticed it. They were both so amazed by the room. Zaffre went to take a step and almost fell over on some ice. Hazel chuckled a bit, while Zaffre regained himself and smiled. "Not to worry, I still have some dignity left." He took another step and this time did fall flat on his butt. "Aaaaaanndd it's gone."

Hazel laughed both at his fall and at his comment. It was a friendly laugh though, one which Zaffre joined in on. Headmaster Caesar smiled as he watched the two enjoying the room. He then reached over and hit the red button. The room cleared and returned to normal, and the door opened. The two laughing teens stumbled out.

"That was awesome!" Zaffre cheered.

"Agreed." Hazel nodded.

Headmaster Caesar looked at them with a smile. "I'm glad you two enjoyed it. The other scenarios will be fully functional soon. As long as you keep your grades up, you and your teams may have access. An instruction sheet can be found under the control panel if need be."

The two calmed down from their laughter. "Sir" said Hazel, "I thought you said students need to earn it. How did I earn it for my team?"

The headmaster shook his head. "You did not earn it for your team, they earned it for themselves. Students earn the use of this room by demonstrating exemplary skills in their normal combat. This room allows them to hone their skills to the next level. Your teams have performed marvelously so far in combat. As such, you are the first students of your year to earn access. I will notify you when the room is ready. Enjoy."

Headmaster Caesar nodded his head in farewell, turned, and left. Zaffre and Hazel were both somewhat stunned by this sudden accomplishment. Neither of them could keep from smiling. They both turned to face each other.

"I like this school." Said Hazel.

Zaffre nodded his head in agreement. "This day can't get much better!"

– **ZFRR – THSL –**

Seventy-five percent of teams ZFRR and THSL walked through campus with satisfied bellies. After the waffle cart, no one had had any real interest in further pursuing food, and so they were now heading to pick up their school uniforms.

Rusty looked at the others as he slipped his scroll back into his pocket. "Zaffre and Hazel had quite the success in their hunt. He said they'll meet us over there. And you guys are gonna love what they discovered!"

"What?" Asked Thistle, hating suspense.

"Oh you'll see. It'll be more fun if you hear it from them." Rusty teased.

"I hate cliffhangers." The young birdie pouted.

"Maybe it's a giant cupcake!" Exclaimed Scarlet. Franky smiled at her enthusiasm.

"What would a giant cupcake be doing in a training hall?" Asked Loy.

"Maybe it's a battle cupcake! It's combat ready!"

"I bet something like that would cost a pretty penny." Rusty snickered.

"Yeee! Giant battle cupcake of deliciousness! Merciless, frosted masterpiece!"

"Someone needs to remove that girl's batteries." Thistle stated, completely unamused.

"Oh lighten up Bird-Butt!" Rusty retorted. His comment earned him a malicious glare from said Bird-Butt. "What? It's a very cute butt."

Thistle stuck her nose in the air as she faced forward. _"I am so far out of his league!"_

The group continued to walk for a few minutes before coming to a halt in front of a large building. The front of the first floor was almost completely glass, showing a nice view of the lobby inside. It was a good view too. Posters and flyers hung on billboards, a small, rock waterfall rested next to a hallway, and a gumball machine greeted strangers with free chewing sugar. Franky politely held the door for everyone as they stepped in. As outdoors became indoors, a large stone desk, fused into the floor, sat on the right with a woman behind it. Franky stepped up with a warm smile. "Excuse me, we're here to pick up our school uniforms."

"Of course." The woman smiled politely in return. "Just down this hall, second door on your right."

"Thank you."

"_What is with his freaking charm? Does anybody not like him?"_ Rusty wondered, despite the obvious fact that receptionists were paid for people interaction.

The group followed the directions they'd received and entered the indicated room. Nothing really special about it, bare walls, plain carpet, and a few folding tables and chairs against the wall. The uniforms hung on racks in the center, taking up the good majority of space. One corner of the room had been left devoid of clothing racks however, and instead contained a table with some paperwork. A male student, probably only a year older than the group, sat behind it, playing with his phone.

"Think this is it?" Asked Rusty.

"Either that or the school has it's own thrift shop." Loy answered.

Thistle marched up to the table to get the guy's attention. He didn't even glance up at her, remaining distracted by his phone. "Sign your name on the list. The uniforms are arranged alphabetically. Girls on the left, boys on the right."

She looked over at the uniforms, then back at him. "They don't look very fun, got anything more flattering?" She puffed her chest out as she said that.

The boy finally glanced up and, seeing how hot this girl was, put his phone down, becoming far more interested in the breathing mounds in front of him. "I'm afraid these are what you get, but I'm sure you'll be able to pull them off."

Thistle leaned in a bit. "I might need some help with that part."

The guy went from intrigued to nervously nose bleeding in the blink of an eye. Thistle laughed mentally at her success in making yet another boy uncomfortable. Unfortunately her fun was ruined by Loy stepping in. "Alright that's enough. You can flirt later."

Thistle switched her focus to her partner. "Jealous?"

Loy rolled his eyes and pulled her away from the table.

Before the others could comment, a growing laughter began emanating from the hallway. They turned towards the door at the sound of the approaching gigglefest, just in time to see Zaffre and Hazel enter.

"No really, right along the bottom of his shirt!"

"And he didn't notice?"

"Nope. Not until she ran off coughing and screaming!"

Hazel and Zaffre laughed, one at the concept and the other at the memory.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Asked Scarlet as she raced forward to greet them.

Hazel calmed herself enough to answer. "Zaffre was just telling me about a time when Rusty lit himself on fire trying to impress a girl."

Scarlet giggled at the thought, turning to Rusty to see his reaction to the story. To her surprise, he showed no embarrassment. He instead smiled and said, "Good times."

"He still uses that trick too." Said Zaffre.

"Didn't he blow himself up with it earlier?" Asked Franky.

Rusty beamed. "Yep!"

"So, where do we sign in?" Asked Hazel.

"Over there." Scarlet pointed at the table. The guy behind it hadn't stopped staring at the valley on Thistle's chest.

Zaffre and Hazel went over to sign their names, followed by the rest of the two teams. Each one of them signed next to their name on the list, and went to find their uniform. Most found theirs within a minute.

As he pulled it out, Ryku looked at his uniform with a slightly concerned expression. "How well were these washed?"

"They're brand new." Replied the guy behind the table, pretending to be once more interested in his phone.

"What are you, some kind of germ-a-phob?" Asked Rusty.

Ryku didn't respond, but what little expression showed on his face answered the question.

Rusty shrugged. "I guess that explains the bandana. Just please tell me you don't sleep with it."

Ryku ignored him and turned away.

"Great." Rusty said sarcastically.

"I actually thought he might be a Faunus and trying to conceal it." Said Loy. "It's pretty common in some areas." His tone suggested he was not pleased with the concept.

"Nah." Said Rusty. "Look at him. No animal traits! No special ears, no wings, and I really doubt he's hiding a tail under there."

"You're forgetting one other common Faunus trait." Thistle added, her eyes glowing as proof.

"Yeah, but have you seen his eyes do anything animal-like? I haven't."

"He has a point." Added Hazel. "Besides, why would he hide it? He has a teammate who's a Faunus." Rusty's tail whipped around at the mention.

Loy shrugged. "I've been wrong before."

As soon as each of them had their respective uniforms, they all funneled back outside. Thistle was the last one out, after pausing to flirt once more with the male student behind the table. Once she too exited, the group began walking back towards their dorms.

"You give him your number?" Asked Hazel.

"Nah, he wasn't bold enough for me." Thistle jumped in front of Hazel and walked backwards while facing her. "So Hazel, Rusty tells us you and Zaffre discovered something cool."

Hazel smiled. "That we did." She and Zaffre went on to explain the magnificent room they had encountered along with their chat with the headmaster and the demonstration he provided.

"Woah." Said Scarlet, a shocked expression plastered across her face. "That sounds awesome!"

"It truly was." Said Hazel with a smile.

"I can't wait to get in there and kick some butt!" Cheered Thistle.

"Yeah!" Seconded Rusty.

"Calm down guys. The room's not fully operational yet. Be patient." Said Zaffre, enjoying the enthusiasm.

"Spoil sport." Scarlet pouted, very much like a little kid. As she said that, the eight warriors arrived at B. Baker Hall.

"Well, looks like we're here." Said Hazel.

"Cool, you guys are in Baker as well?" Asked Zaffre.

"That we are." Answered Thistle.

"And we best be heading up to our room." Said Loy, turning to look at Thistle. "Some of us need our rest."

"Ooh, so forward." Teased Thistle. Loy ignored the comment, again. Thistle's flirts were proving very ineffective on him.

"_What the heck? First Franky and now Loy? Why is every guy being hit on but me?"_ Rusty Pondered.

"Alright. Well, catch you ladies and gentleman later." Said Zaffre. Franky and Rusty also said goodnight, and Team ZFRR departed for their room. Team THSL similarly headed in. Loy helped Thistle up the stairs, with Hazel walking up after them, and Scarlet bounding up at the rear. When they reached their floor, Scarlet ran to Hazel's side.

"So, how'd it go?" She asked.

"What do you mean? We already told you about the Sparring halls." Replied the confused hunter.

"Not what I meant." Scarlet had a bright gleam in her eye as she spoke the words.

"Then what did you mean?"

Scarlet simply winked at her, before bolting ahead to their room. Hazel stopped and stood there for a moment, puzzled by Scarlet's remark. "Hey, wait!"

– **ZFRR –**

Team ZFRR stood in their room, each getting ready for bed. Ryku had insisted on changing in the closet, saying only that he didn't like viewers. Zaffre had just returned from brushing his teeth in the bathroom, already in his pj's. Franky was still changing into his nightclothes, and Rusty sat on his bed listening to headphones. The closet door nearest Ryku's bed opened, and Ryku stepped out wearing sweatpants, a long sleeved shirt, and, you guessed it, his bandana.

"Well, look who finally came out of the closet!" Teased Rusty. Ryku responded by glaring at him.

"Give him a break Rusty." Said Zaffre.

Rusty shrugged at looked over at his green-haired teammate. Franky was currently removing a pink flower earring from his right earlobe. The gemstone piercing caught the young monkey's attention. "What's that?"

Franky looked over at him. "A special gift from a good friend."

"What friend? And why is it special?"

"I'm curious to know too." Added Zaffre.

Franky nodded. "As you know, I enjoy the chance to learn new things. There was one summer I focused a lot on Botany."

"Is that a robot bunny?" Asked Rusty.

Franky smiled and shook his head. "It's the study of plants. I traveled all over, trying to learn about as many plants as I could. My search took me to a remote village. The people there were really friendly, and showed me so many cool things about so many different plants, particularly flowers. As a show of their kindness, a girl in that village gave me this earring."

"Oo, a girl huh?" Zaffre teased. Rusty looked less amused.

"I know what you're thinking, but we were just friends."

"What was her name?"

"Diantha."

"That's a pretty sounding name."

"That it is, but she's not as thrilled by it. She's not a stereotypical girl by any means."

"And you guys never…?"

"No. I believe dating should be reserved for potential life partners. And while she was very nice, we were not compatible in that way."

"Was the earring for any special occasion?"

"No. Like I said, it was a show of kindness."

Zaffre noticed Rusty silently pouting. _"Some people have all the luck."_ The monkey thought.

"Don't worry Rusty, we'll get you a pink earring too. Maybe even a nice dress to go with it!" Said Zaffre.

Rusty threw a pillow at him, but smiled none-the-less. "Hey, I look good in a dress!"

Franky gave them a puzzled look, to which Zaffre said, "Believe me dude, you don't want to know."

Franky accepted that statement, and resumed preparing for bed. Not long after, the four future huntsmen were fast asleep.

– **ZFRR –**

Ryku's eyes shot open, a cold sweat dripping down his forehead. He listened to the echoing screams in his head, the screams of the woman. He looked at the clock on his left. It read three in the morning. He could see all of his teammates were still asleep. Thankfully he had not made noise enough to wake them. He suddenly realized his right hand was gripping something tightly. Looking over, he saw that he had retrieved his weapon from the side of his bed. He lowered it back down and let go. _Won't they ever go away?_ He had been having nightmares for a while. Not constantly, in fact sometimes he could go a month or two in between. But they kept coming back.

He closed his eyes tight. _I can't live in the past._ He thought about the dreams. He dreamt of the woman who screamed in pain, of the man who lashed out with anger, and of the boy who was scarred for life. Blurred images, all of them. Details that fuzzed and changed. But the core remained the same every time. It was a day he never wanted to return to, but never seemed to have any choice. He shuddered at the memory, trying to push it out of his head. _"Classes begin soon, I need to focus on them. I can't focus on her right now."_ He opened his eyes again, staring at the ceiling. _"Maybe one day I'll be able to help her. Hopefully."_ And with that, he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

Author's note: Well, I didn't expect that. I had thought this would be a short chapter with just a couple quick intros, but it ended up being a good deal longer than I anticipated. So I decided to split chapter three into two parts. The new Grimm I mentioned is actually in the second part, so you'll see it there. The second part of this chapter will show the two teams adjusting to classes, and will introduce a couple of important characters. I hope you enjoy, and have a good day!


	4. Life As We Know It Part 2

Hello everyone, I am Xjentryn and I'm a videogame addict. I'd say it started about…oh wait, this isn't the support group. Er, we're just gonna pretend like that never happened. Anywho, welcome back to another fan-TABULOUS (said in a high-pitched voice) chapter of The Chronicles of ZFRR. In this chapter, the students begin classes (I know, just oozing excitement huh?) and, well that's pretty much it. The new Grimm I've (sorta) teased you with will definitely be in this chapter, so let me know what you think. And now, just to make this intro look evilly long, I will list some random words in alphabetical order: Astrology, Bacon, Cheerleaders, Dodongo, Elf Lord, Flamingo, Genie (RIP Robin Williams. We salute you wonderful man), Hagrid, Inconceivable, Juicy, Kool-Aid Guy, Larry the Cucumber, Moist (how many of you cringed at that word?), Necromancy, Optimus Prime, Phillip Phillips, Queen of England, Rummaging, Suicune, Taffy, Upside down, Vocabulary, Wreck-It Ralph, X-wing fighters, Yogurt, Zoom-doom baba-doom doom doom. (That last one was a musical beat if you couldn't tell.) Well, now that I've wasted some of everyone's precious time (I salute you if you didn't skip through) I present to you Ch 4: Life As We Know It Part 2. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, or emeralds, or diamonds, or Pinocchio. Seriously, just how rich do you think I am? (I also do not own other fandoms referenced.)

Warning: May contain mild swearing.

"Talking"

"_Thinking"_

_Memory_

**Sound effect**

"~Singing~"

It was Monday morning and classes were about to begin. Teams ZFRR and THSL sat in a large lecture hall with their classmates. The class was mostly spilt fifty-fifty between those who were eagerly chatting with friends, and those who were not quite awake. Zaffre was in the second group.

"Man, I'm tired." Zaffre yawned.

"C'mon buddy, is that any way for a leader to act?" Rusty prodded him sarcastically.

"I can't help it, morning classes are just not my thing."

"Here, try this." Franky held out one of his pellets.

"What is it?" Zaffre asked sleepily.

"It'll help you wake up."

Zaffre shrugged. "Sure." Franky released a small amount of gas around Zaffre, whose eyes instantly went wide. "Oh my gosh what is that?" Zaffre held his nose.

"It's better you don't ask. Awake now?"

Zaffre nodded hastily, not eager for another dose.

"Good." Franky smiled. Rusty tried not to fall out of his chair laughing.

Across the room, Hazel and Loy were pulling out their books for class. Next to them, Scarlet was playing with a pair of pens, and Thistle was sleeping with her feet on the desk. Seeing her, Loy elbowed Thistle in the side.

"Ouch!" She startled as she woke up. "What was that for?"

"Class is about to start."

"Yeah yeah." Thistle put her feet down and looked at the front of the class. "Shouldn't the teacher be here?"

"I'm sure he will." Hazel answered. Glancing over, she noticed Thistle had nothing in front of her. "Where is your notebook?"

She shrugged. "I guess I forgot it."

Hazel pulled out a second one. "Here, I've got an extra." She handed it, along with a pencil, to Thistle.

Thistle accepted, and set them in front of her. However she left the notebook closed, and turned her attention to the boys in the room. "Ooh, nice." Scarlet saw her leader's attention wandering, and deemed it necessary to flick a paper football in her face. "Hey!"

Scarlet held a hand over her mouth. "Oops! I'm so sorry!" She said in an overly sarcastic voice. Thistle just glared in response. Loy rolled his eyes, dreading the rest of the class now. Hazel glanced over to see how Zaffre's team was doing. She was pleased to see that at least their team seemed ready for class, even Rusty.

Zaffre was currently watching a discussion between Rusty and Franky. "I'm telling you, any girl."

"Oh really?" Franky responded. "You're that confident?"

Rusty had a big smile plastered across his face. His eyebrows bounced twice. "Oh yeah. You point to a girl here, and I can get her number, I guarantee it!"

Ryku scoffed.

Rusty turned to him and grinned. "Ok then Mr. Doubting Mustafa, watch this." Rusty stretched and 'accidentally' dropped a pencil next to a cute girl in front of him. Noticing it, she picked it up and turned around.

"I think you dropped this."

"Oh, thanks. Glad you're not a pencil thief."

She laughed. "No, I'm not."

"That's good!" Rusty gave a friendly smile. "I'm Rusty! Slayer of women, woo-er of evil!"

Zaffre smiled, he knew this trick. Rusty would intentionally butcher a pick-up line when talking to a girl. It would make her laugh, and feel a little bad for him. Then he'd follow it up with a sheepish smile, fake a stutter, and finally ask her out with a tone that suggested he didn't quite know what he was doing. It was a trick that actually worked a fair amount of the time.

The girl laughed. "I better stay out of your way then."

Rusty blushed. It amazed Zaffre how well he could blush on demand. "N-no, sorry that w-wasn't what I meant." He smiled sheepishly.

"_Right on cue."_ Zaffre thought.

"Oh? What did you mean?" The girl asked raising an eyebrow.

"_Wait for it…"_

"I just thought you were pretty and was hoping we could get smoothies sometime. I mean, if you're ok with that."

"_Little overkill there."_

The girl smiled. "Sure." She then proceeded to pull out a piece of paper, right her number on it, and give it to Rusty.

"Thanks." He said semi-awkwardly.

"No problem." The girl winked at him. He pulled off another blush as she turned back to face the front of the class.

Rusty looked over at Ryku, smiled victoriously, and winked.

Zaffre leaned in and heard the girl talking to her friend.

"Yeah, I know what he was doing, but he was so cute. How could I say no?"

"_So I was right."_ Zaffre confirmed his suspicions. _"Rusty failed to realize that she could hear everything he said. He is so lucky that she went along with it."_ Rusty, of course, wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to the conversation in front of him.

At the front right of the classroom, a Professor walked through the door.

"Sorry I'm late class!" He said.

He was a taller man, with medium length blonde hair set semi-neatly on his head. A shaven-down beard stretched from one ear to the other, with a moustache branching off to jump over his lip. He wore deep yellow glasses over calm, blue eyes. The man wore a khaki sweater vest over a white button shirt and a yellow tie. His pants were gray dress pants hanging above brown shoes. He walked to the desk across the room, set his bag down, and turned to address the class.

"Hello class! I'm Professor Trelos, and welcome to Analytic Reasoning and Strategizing!" He said cheerfully. "It's so great to see so many young, new huntsmen and huntresses here! Boy I bet you'll make Grimm run scared!" He smiled as his gaze drifted across the students. "Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to get to know you all a little better. Let's have everyone say their name, where they're from, and name one of their favorite activities!"

"_Oh great."_ Ryku thought sarcastically. _"One of THOSE teachers."_ Ryku was not very fond of the 'what's your favorite thing to do' question. He thought carefully about how to answer. He glanced at his teammates to see how they reacted. Zaffre seemed to like the idea, Rusty was clearly plotting a terrible answer, and Franky appeared really happy and slightly distant for no apparent reason. Ryku could tell Franky's happiness was not directed at the class or professor.

One by one the students introduced themselves. Some were from Ithalese, some from Forjador, and some from many other locations. Most answers were fairly similar: 'I like this sport', 'I like that instrument', 'I like weapons', etc. Every now and again the professor would ask a student a question or two about their chosen hobby. A couple students tried brownnosing, but it gained them little. Here and there were students who didn't want to answer; yet Professor Trelos would insist. Soon he came to Team ZFRR, starting with its leader.

"Hello, I'm Zaffre. I'm from Ithalese City. One of my favorite pastimes is making different kinds of blades."

"Do you make other weapons as well? Like blunt or firearm? Or do you just specialize in blades?"

"Just blades. I have a knack for them."

"Neat-o! And how about you young man?"

Zaffre sat down and Rusty stood up. "I'm Rusty, I'm also from Ithalese City." Zaffre covered his mouth to keep from laughing too much at whatever Rusty might say. Ryku winced in anticipation. "One of my favorite things to do is study heavenly bodies."

The professor raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Like what?"

Rusty glanced around the room. "That one, that one, ooh! Definitely that that one!" He pointed at various girls around the room.

Most of the class burst out laughing. Professor Trelos even chuckled a little bit. "Well let's try to keep our focus on the class topics in here ok Bud?" Rusty beamed, completely proud of himself. Professor Trelos turned to Franky. Franky stood up, while Zaffre pulled Rusty back into his seat.

"Hello, I'm Franky. I'm from Oan. I enjoy art."

"Any specific kind?"

"Any kind at all. There are many different talents out there, and I like to see them."

"Very true."

He turned now to Ryku. Ryku sighed, and slowly stood up. "I'm Ryku. I'm from Jotunn. I enjoy quiet walks." _"Please don't ask for more, please don't ask for more."_ To his relief, the professor didn't.

"Ok Bud, thanks for sharing." Professor Trelos then continued with more students.

"_Phew."_ Ryku thought as he sat back down. He really wasn't much for sharing.

Rusty leaned in. "So, walks huh?" Ryku growled at him.

Professor Trelos continued his way around the classroom, getting an introduction from each student. After he had gone through everybody, he offered his own. "Well, it is very nice to meet each and every one of you. As for myself, I'm from Ithalese City, and one of my favorite hobbies is riding my motorbike." He smiled and looked around the room. "Now that we all know each other, what do you say we get this show on the road?"

– **ZFRR – THSL –**

"So, what'd you guys think of the first half of our first day?" Rusty asked.

"Not bad. I have to say, I like the teaching styles I've seen so far." Franky responded. It was lunchtime, and Team ZFRR sat in the cafeteria discussing their morning classes.

"I particularly enjoyed Trelos's class." Added Zaffre. "I thought he was a fun teacher."

"Oh his class was full of things I like!" Rusty grinned mischievously.

"I think Zaffre was referring more towards the contents of the class that he'll enjoy exploring."

"So was I." Rusty bounced his eyebrows, giving his teammate a suggestive look.

Loy and Hazel walked over to where Team ZFRR was sitting.

"Mind if we join you?" Asked Hazel.

Zaffre gave them a curious look. "You don't want to sit with your own team?"

Loy shook his head. "Those two have been at odds with each other ever since initiation."

Hazel nodded in agreement. "They seem very competitive. A little too much in fact."

"We'd rather leave them to it for right now."

Zaffre used his foot to scooch the chair on his left out. "Then by all means."

"Thanks." Hazel smiled, taking the offered seat. Loy walked around and sat across from her, next to Franky. Rusty glanced over at Scarlet and Thistle out of curiosity. The two were in an intense arm-wrestle, currently a stalemate. Insults and taunts were being thrown back and forth, most of which sounded like gibberish.

"I think we've lost Rusty." Franky commented.

Zaffre glanced over at Rusty, and then at the spectacle his friend was so entranced by. Upon seeing both, he rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, he's hoping for a cat-fight."

"Technically it'd be a dog-and-bird-fight." Hazel commented. The group, aside from Ryku and Rusty, laughed. Rusty just kept staring eagerly.

"How long is he gonna be like that?" Asked Loy.

"Depends on just how intense those two get." Answered Zaffre.

"Judging by how they're acting now, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets what he wants." Franky noted. Ryku nodded in agreement.

Zaffre grinned. "I can get him back. Hey Rusty! Boobs!"

Rusty's head shot back towards Zaffre. "WHERE?!" The group burst out laughing again. Realizing what was going on, Rusty glared at Zaffre. "Not cool dude."

Zaffre continued laughing. "Calm down man."

"Hey," Rusty shot back, "I take my boobs very seriously!"

"Well if you worked out more they wouldn't be a problem." Hazel mentioned, continuing the laughingfest.

"Haha." Rusty replied tersely.

"Oh chill out man." Zaffre teased.

"Dude, there's about to be chick fight and you want me to calm down?"

"Just a little bit, yeah."

Rusty's eyes went wide. "But dude, just think! If we're lucky, they might even shred each other's clothing!" Zaffre blushed a bit at the thought.

Franky looked at the competitive teammates. "What makes you so sure there's even gonna be a fight?"

"Trust me, I know these things."

Ryku looked at the two girls. _"I calculate a twenty-three percent chance he's right."_ He thought.

"He's actually very good at predicting things like girl fights." Said Zaffre. He looked his friend in the eye. "Of course, part of that is because he's probably gonna meddle."

Ryku's statistic increased by sixty-four percent upon hearing that.

"Oh you know me." Rusty grinned. "I'm definitely gonna meddle!"

"Here we go." Zaffre rubbed his forehead.

Rusty grinned mischievously as he took out two marbles. He rolled the first one along the floor toward Thistle and Scarlet. After a moment, he rolled the second one in the same direction, but faster. The second caught up with the first near Scarlet.

**SNAP!**

The two collided, releasing a sharp sound. Scarlet turned her head quickly to see what caused the noise. The distraction cost her her focus, and Thistle slammed her arm down in victory.

"I WIN!"

Completely forgetting about the sound, Scarlet snapped her attention back to Thistle. With a growl, she leapt across the table and tackled her purple-haired leader.

"YES!" Cheered Rusty.

"Rusty…just why?" Asked Zaffre.

"Here." Franky held up his right arm and fired two darts. Rage battle quickly switched to nap time as the two girls collapsed on the floor.

Rusty's shoulders drooped. "Ahhh." He said disappointedly. "Spoil sport."

"Bout time." Said Loy.

"How long will they stay out?" Asked Hazel.

"Ten or so minutes. I didn't hit them with anything too strong." Franky replied calmly.

Loy nodded in acknowledgement. "So we get ten minutes to eat peacefully before the shit storm commences once more."

"Oh please." Said Zaffre. "With Rusty, there is no eating peacefully."

"Hold that thought!" Rusty put his hand over Zaffre's mouth. Zaffre simply pulled it off. Down at the empty end of their table, a dark-skinned girl had just sat down by herself. She had straight, black hair that reached halfway down her back. She wore a short, strapless, green dress with the outline of a rose on the right hand side. Light aqua glasses covered her blue eyes. From either ear lobe hung a short, dangling chain with a rose on the end. She also wore a necklace composed of small white beads with a star pendant on it. Rusty seemed fixated on her.

"Really Rusty? You just got a girl's number in class." Zaffre reminded his blonde monkey friend.

"Yeah, I've been on a hot streak recently, time to keep it going!" Rusty got up and walked to the end of the table.

"Excuse me miss, I was just wondering, if I followed you home, would you keep me?"

Zaffre hit an all time record for fastest and hardest face palm. _"Why? Why would he say that? That is one of the worst lines he knows! I never thought he'd be dumb enough to use it!"_ Zaffre's hand slid down to just below his eyes. He peered at the train wreck in front of him. _"He must not be actually trying to get anywhere."_ Next to him, Ryku winced, Franky looked completely shocked, Hazel cringed, and Loy face-planted his food. Everyone waited to see just how bad she'd take it.

The girl giggled. "Adorable creature like you? How could I not?"

The five viewers all fell back out of their seats. _"WHAT?!"_ They all thought in unison.

Rusty smiled. "Nice to know. I'm Rusty by the way." Rusty did a terrible two-second tap dance and bowed.

The girl giggled again. "You can call me Deedee."

Rusty grinned. "Oh I'll definitely call you."

She smiled at him. "Don't you need my number for that?"

"You best write it down then." He replied slyly.

She giggled a third time. "Sit down and have lunch with me and I will."

Over in the collapsed mass of bodies, Zaffre's hand shakily rose up like a zombie, and then dropped back to the floor. _"What. The. Heck. Just. Happened."_

– **ZFRR – THSL –**

The students sat in another large lecture hall. At the front stood an average-height dark skinned man with a shaved head. He had a shaved-down, black goatee and blue/green eyes. He wore a simple viridian shirt with a jet-black jacket over it. His pants and shoes were equally black. He held his hands behind his back, staring seriously at the class.

"Welcome to Grimm Studies." He announced. "I am Professor Viridian. Here you will learn about the types of Grimm you will face in the world. Their history, biology, and habits." He let his gaze drift across the students. "Now, I imagine there are those among you who believe you already know all you need to in order to properly hunt and kill the creatures of Grimm. I could tell you otherwise, but what cause have you to believe me? So, I would like two volunteers to come down here and prove it to me."

Most of the students looked hesitant. Rusty instantly shot up his hand, along with a few other students. Professor Viridian looked at them and pointed to two. Thistle was the first. The second was a well-tanned boy. He had aqua hair slicked to the side and bright eyes that competed with it. A scar rested on his right cheek.

The two students came forward. The professor gestured to a small stack of white crates on the side of the room. "Choose your opponents." Thistle pointed to one in the middle and the tan boy to one on the side of them. "Very well." The professor proceeded to place a crate in front of each of them, neither of which they'd chosen.

"Uh, Professor?" Thistle asked.

"You won't get to choose what Grimm you fight after you graduate, why should you now?"

"No problem!" The tan boy exclaimed. "I can take down anything you got!"

"In that case, you shall go first. Please state your name."

"Turk Ken."

"Turk, face your opponent!" Professor Viridian opened the crate. A Beowulf sprang out. The boy now identified as Turk drew out a sword. He swung at the Beowulf, which ducked and swung back, knocking him to the ground. Turk rolled away, and jumped to his feet. He lunged in, but the Grimm swatted him away a second time. Annoyed now, Turk threw his blade at the beast. The sharp steel imbedded in its leg, but the monster did not fall. The Beowulf knocked Turk to the ground, and rose up to strike the final blow. Suddenly a metal collar on a chain shot out and clamped around its neck.

"In a true battle against a pack of these creatures, you would have died. Return to your seat." Turk obliged sullenly. Professor Viridian turned to Thistle. "Your turn. State your name."

"Thistle Sora."

"Thistle, face your opponent!" The second crate opened. A sea turtle-like creature emerged. It had a white shell, with a red pattern on it. Its eyes were completely white with short red lines coming from them in various directions across its skin. Its head easily stood four feet tall when raised. Thistle smirked at the sight. She then opened her mouth and bellowed an ear-splitting scream. The entire class covered their ears in pain, but the creature seemed unfazed. It charged straight at her, head-butting her in the gut. Shocked, Thistle fell back to the ground, winded.

"You forget young lady, the Dark Vishnus is completely blind and deaf, relying on a form of sonar instead."

Thistle groaned and climbed to her feet. The beast tucked in its head and held its four razor-sharp legs out. Quickly it began spinning toward her. She drew on her aura to keep from getting sliced, but the impact still knocked her back. Without mercy, the Grimm pulled back slightly, and rammed her again. Thistle fell on her back. As it tried to ram her a third time, she rolled to the side, jumped to her feet, and took to the air. The Dark Vishnus stopped spinning, and faced her. She pulled out her twin crossbows and rained arrows down. The turtle pulled its limbs into its shell, letting the arrows bounce off harmlessly. Thistle paused her assault to reload. In one quick move, the Grimm released its legs, and flung itself straight at her. Both of them came tumbling to the ground. Thistle groaned and rolled to her back. The beast's legs were pointed right at her neck. Thankfully, a metal collar had restrained it, keeping it just far enough away.

"Thistle Sora, you too have been defeated. Return to your seat." Thistle complied, cringing from pain. Professor Viridian turned to the class. "Some of you may have succeeded here, but it would have been sloppy, lucky, and pathetic. Both of these creatures are deadly to most, but they should be harmless to you. Observe!"

He reached behind him and pulled out two large metal fists. As he slipped them on, the collars fell off the Grimm. The Beowulf attacked instantly, swinging high. The professor blocked it with one hand, and proceeded to punch the beast hard in the now exposed side. The Beowulf fell back, wounded. Without pause, Professor Viridian combined the fists into a large blocky gun, and fired an energy blast at the grim, killing it. Spinning around, he shifted his weapon back into fists and punched the Dark Vishnus away as it charged him. He then popped off one glove, pulled out a pencil, and flung it at the Grimm. The Dark Vishnus tucked its limbs in as the pencil landed on its back. Before it could react, Professor Viridian flipped the turtle over, and punched it square in the stomach, killing it as well.

Sheathing his weapons, he turned to the class. "Now, shall we begin today's lecture?"

– **THSL –**

After class, the girls of Team THSL walked down the hall, headed back to their dorm.

"That was cool!" Scarlet said excitedly.

"It was certainly unexpected." Hazel added.

Thistle looked angrily at Scarlet. "Cool? You think it was cool to watch your leader get humiliated in front of the whole class?"

Scarlet smirked. "It didn't look that tough."

"Oh sure, it all looks so easy when the teacher does it!"

"Calm down Thistle." Hazel put a hand on her shoulder. "It's not like we would have faired much better."

"Speak for yourself." Scarlet muttered.

"You're just lucky you didn't hurt yourself." Hazel continued, "You need to let your wings heal more before you do any more flying."

Thistle rolled her eyes. "Yes mom."

Hazel frowned. "I'm serious. You could have injured yourself pretty bad."

"You also could have fought well, so there's that." Scarlet added, gaining her a disapproving look from Hazel.

Thistle's glare intensified. "Oh, you think you would have beat the ugly beast?"

"I didn't have to, the Grimm did it for me." Thistle almost attacked her for saying that.

"I meant the Grimm!" She said angrily.

"Oh no." Scarlet replied sarcastically. "If our wise and powerful leader couldn't beat it, how could I?"

Thistle growled. "It was rigged! It had to be! I mean, why would a Grimm hide from a pencil?!"

"Didn't you hear what the professor said?" A calm voice behind them caused the girls to turn around. Franky stood calmly behind them with a smile. "The creature was deaf and blind. Its sonar told it that a bullet or arrow sized projectile was headed for it at a moderately high speed. Its instinct was to hide. I've read about that kind of Grimm. Throwing stones, sticks, or other simple items at it is a good way to get it to go defensive. Then all you have to do is hit its stomach."

Thistle stood angrily, mouth agape. "But…No…That…What?!" She growled. "Then why not just fire at it?"

"Because ammunition and arrows fly too fast. By the time you catch up, the Grimm isn't hiding. You could fire continuously, but then you're just wasting ammo." Franky smiled warmly. "Professor Viridian was trying to show us that well-thought out plan can do most of the work for us when battling. To just fight a Dark Vishnus head on is suicide. But if you know how it operates, you can easily use its attributes against it."

Thistle was fuming now. First she had been humiliated in combat, and now she was being told she was completely wrong and foolish. Noticing this, Franky sighed.

"I'm not saying you can't do it, and neither is he. Think about the Death Stalker you faced in the forest. You studied it and the surroundings. You saw that it had a temper and wildly attacked anything that attacked it, and you used that to your advantage."

Thistle calmed down some when she heard that. "But I…"

"Your flaw was you were just too eager to prove yourself. But you're a leader now; you need to set a good example." Franky's smile fell. "Charging into battle without thinking is going to get you and those around you badly hurt or worse." With that, he walked past them.

"He's right Thistle." Said Hazel. "There's nothing wrong with wanting to prove yourself, but in there all you wanted to do was prove the teacher wrong and be praised."

Thistle growled and walked away.

"Well, someone ran out of happy pills this morning." Scarlet joked.

Hazel sighed sadly. "I wish she'd take this seriously."

– **THSL –**

Loy stood outside of the headmaster's office. After class he had left ahead of his team because he had an important matter to bring up with the headmaster. He reached out and knocked on the door. A moment passed before a shadow appeared on the other side. The door opened to reveal Professor Morningstar.

"Yes?" She asked with an eyebrow raised.

Loy cleared his throat. "Is Headmaster Caesar here?"

The headmaster joined Professor Morningstar at the door. "Clarice can you give us a moment?" He asked. She nodded and stepped out, and the headmaster beckoned Loy in. Loy stepped in. Headmaster Caesar closed the door behind him and walked over to his desk. "What is it you need?" He asked in a friendly tone.

"I wanted to talk to you about my team leader."

The headmaster nodded. "Miss Sora."

Loy nodded. "Yes. With all due respect, I think you made a mistake appointing her as leader of our team."

"What makes you say that?"

"She's irresponsible. She doesn't take classes seriously. She's foolhardy and far too eager to showboat. She lets skirmishes over dumb things happen between her and her teammates."

"Is that so?"

"Yes sir."

"You do realize it is only the first day?"

"Of classes, yes. But she's been like this ever since she got the position. I don't think she's fit to be our leader."

Headmaster Caesar calmly looked Loy in the eye. "Then who is? You?"

Loy's eyes went wide. "No sir, I think you mistake my intentions. I do not want to be the leader, and I do not believe I fit the role."

The headmaster smiled slightly. "Someone has to fill the job."

Loy thought for a second. "What about Hazel?"

The headmaster nodded. "You believe Miss Shizukana would be a better leader?"

"Yes sir. She's kind, compassionate. She knows how to put others first. She keeps the peace between us to the best of her abilities, and she's dedicated."

The tall man inhaled deeply and walked over to the wall. Above him hung a picture of four young huntsmen. "Do you know who these are?" Loy shook his head. "These are my teammates." He pointed at the one on the far right. "This is Vanto. A very excellent fighter, if a bit too willing to fight sometimes. Still a very friendly guy, and quite funny at times." His finger moved to the next one over. "This is Thylo. He is possibly the smartest man you will ever meet. He was very compassionate, and loved fun. But he was also often hung up on the pains of the past." The finger now jumped to the left-most person. "And this is Falu. A whimsical fellow, though he did have a bit of a temper on him." Finally the pointing finger shifted to the last person in the picture. "Lastly, this is me. I was a complete goofball, and loved getting myself into trouble. When I wasn't wasting time, I was exploring and generally not paying attention to much else."

"Ok." Said Loy.

"Take a guess which of us led the team."

Loy looked at the four of them, pondering. Then he sighed, realizing the point of the story. "You?"

Headmaster Caesar smiled. "Correct. Many thought I was a terrible choice, and my own team often agreed. Everyone thought Thylo should've led us. And I even agreed on occasion. But as our time at school progressed, I learned to improve. Many people told me how wonderful my team and I were by the end of our first year. By graduation, we were considered some of the top students at Beacon."

He closed his eyes in thought. "I'm not telling you this to praise myself, but to explain that what initially appears to be true, is often mistaken." He opened his eyes again and looked at Loy. "I will admit Miss Shizukana has many of the qualities of a great leader, and is very kind and caring, but she is too used to fighting alone. Miss Sora may seem like a solo act, but she recognizes her team and allows them to help. Her first plan of attack is that of a team, not an individual."

Headmaster Caesar rested his hand on Loy's shoulder. "Give her time, you'll see."

Author's note: And that ends chapter 4. Not quite as long as the others, but I enjoyed writing it all the same. The next chapter will focus on the competitive nature of the teams. I hope you all enjoyed this, and have a great day! Also, I would like to thank Derek Sorlie for naming the new Grimm.


	5. A Thistle In My Side

What is your side? Left or Right? Strength or Speed? Male or Female? Child or Adult? Red or Blue? The competition is on. Hello Readers, and welcome to chapter 5 of The Chronicles of ZFRR. In this chapter, we'll get a chance to see the competitive side of ZFRR and THSL. Classes have been going for a couple weeks, and part of their routine is combat practice against each other. How will the students fair against their friends? And how will they react to the outcome? Only one way to know…

Disclaimer: I've never seen that guy before in my life! Also, I have an alibi for that night! …Wait, sorry, that's for something else…just forget I said that…

*Corrected Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, or any other fandom referenced.

Warning: May contain mild swearing.

"Talking"

"_Thinking"_

_Memory_

**Sound effect**

"~Singing~"

Franky stood silently, letting his cloak flutter in the breeze. A deep breath in. The cool air pooled into his lungs, calming his mind, and allowing his senses to roam. Slowly his eyes opened, revealing the world around him. He took notice of every important detail. Trees: good for cover and high ground. Slight wind from the north: will move his gasses and affect the flight of darts. Firm ground: minimal risk of sliding. Exposed sun to the east: decreases eastbound vision. Opponent: strong, but speed oriented. Meant to move quickly and abruptly. Optimal fighting position: Northeast clearing.

He gripped his staff firmly, preparing himself. As the gentle wind rustled his long, green hair, he extended his weapon arm out to the side. His opponent, a male student about his age, wearing a basic ninja suit with a red ninja mask, stood about thirty yards away from him. The young boy tightly gripped twin sais at his sides, the triple prongs itching for some action. After a moment, the temptation became too great. The young ninja charged, weapons at the ready. Franky merely stepped to the side and spun as the charging maniac whizzed harmlessly past him. To any onlookers, he appeared to be a reckless tank. The charge was sloppy and easily avoided. Except for one little detail, as soon as he passed the green-haired woodsman, he imbedded his right sai in the ground, changing his straight-line charge into a spin-kick.

The sudden change was unexpected, but Franky managed to block it with his staff none-the-less. The red masked man let loose his hands and feet in wave after wave on mad assault on Franky. Most of these swings were stopped or avoided, until one punch managed to get through and send him staggering back. Franky recovered quickly, throwing gas pellets at the ninja's feet. A quick backflip was enough to save the boy from a dose of paralyzing gas, but not from a baseball swing to the side.

**SLAM**

The ninja boy flew to the side, dazed by the unforeseen blow. He landed and rolled to his feet, only to have his left leg give out suddenly. Glancing down, he noticed a small dart sticking out of his thigh. The boy growled, very angry now, as he rose to his still good leg. He managed to dodge and block two more darts as his opponent ran at him.

Franky kicked and swung as he reached his target, but found his assaults stopped by the ninja's own. The two continued to trade blows. Some got through, most didn't, but all were insufficient to end the battle. Finally Franky managed to hook his staff horizontally in his opponent's sais. The two struggled for control, until Franky lifted his legs, allowing him to swing. He swung down between the ninja's legs, pulling the interlocked weapons with him. The masked boy was forced to bend over as the staff pulled him down, slamming into his shins. The impact resulted in a summersault that left the ninja lying flat on his back. Franky wasted no time in sliding his staff out from his opponent's weapons and delivering a blast of yellow gas directly to his face. The chemical mixture caused the ninja boy's muscles to all relax, allowing Franky to easily pin him.

**DING**

A bell sounded as Franky stepped off his opponent and offered him a hand up. The ninja grunted angrily, swatting Franky's hand away.

"Mr. Ginseng is the victor!" a voice called out.

Professor Viridian stepped out onto the battlefield as lights came on all around them. The two boys stood in one of the mega battle rooms, currently set to a thin forest setting. A screen shown brightly above the entrance to the auditorium, showing the aura levels of both fighters. Franky's remained full, while the ninja boy's was only marginally lowered.

"And that ends today's combat practice." The competitors rejoined the students in the stands as the professor spoke. "Remember, next class we will begin team matches. So I advise you to practice fighting as a group. You cannot expect an individual to take down a whole team, though it has been known to happen. Dismissed!" Without another word, Professor Viridian turned around and exited the hall.

Very quickly the students rose from their seats and followed suit. Team ZFRR was quite happy to congratulate their member on a victory.

"Well done man!" Cheered Rusty, his words accompanied by a forceful pat on the back.

"Heh, thanks." Smiled Franky in gratitude.

"You fought wonderfully Franky."

"Yeah! As a reward, let me buy you dinner!" Continued Rusty.

"…Which means I'm buying you dinner right?" Asked the blue-haired team leader.

"You got it!"

"Guys, it's fine. You don't need to." Franky insisted. While he appreciated their support, a training match victory was hardly a notable accomplishment.

"Well, we're free for the rest of the day, Professor Vortex cancelled class today." Zaffre pointed out. "What do you guys wanna do?"

As they entered the main part of the building, Rusty jumped and looped his tail around an overhead bar, allowing him to hang beside them. "I don't know about you, but I'm going for pizza!"

"Who with?"

"Nooooobody." Rusty grinned.

"No seriously, who?"

"Why can't he go alone?" Asked Franky.

Zaffre sighed. "Because this is Rusty we're talking about. And as he always says…"

"Pizza is a party food, and you can't party alone." He and Rusty said in unison.

"To answer your question, I have a date!"

"Which poor girl did you trick this time? Or was it a bribe?"

"Ok first of all Zaffy, pizza is its own bribe. Secondly, it's that cute blonde from History class."

"I thought she threw a smoothie at you?"

"It was a slushy." Rusty corrected. "And it takes more than that to get rid of the rust!"

Franky chuckled a bit at Rusty's words. "I'm going to head over to Serenity Valley for some meditation. You're welcome to join me if you wish."

"I'll pass thanks." Said Zaffre. "I told my folks I'd give them a call today. May as well not keep them waiting."

"Hey say hi to Noir for me!"

"Will do Rusty." Zaffre turned to face his less talkative teammate. "How about you Ry-" To his surprise, Ryku was nowhere to be seen. The others took notice of this as well.

"How does he do that?" Asked the monkey.

"What do you mean? I've seen you do it all the time."

"Yeah but that's for important stuff."

"You mean girls?"

Rusty beamed. "Yep! Hey! Maybe that's where he went!"

Franky chuckled slightly. "I doubt it Rusty."

The monkey shrugged. "Well, either way, it's where I'm going. See ya!"

"Adios Rusty."

"I'll be on my way too." Said Franky.

"Alright man, catch up with you later."

Franky nodded with a smile, before turning to depart.

"Well, guess that just leaves me. Off to things!"

– **THSL –**

"That was a good fight!"

"It wasn't bad."

"Oh c'mon, Franky was awesome!"

"He was ok. His opponent just stank."

"Oh whatever Thistle, you're totally just jealous!"

"I am not."

"~You're jelly! You're jelly!~" Scarlet began dancing in place as she sung.

"I'm wha? Jelly? What are you, five?

"~Jelly jelly jelly! Oh so very jelly!~"

"Ok Scarlet, that's enough." Hazel couldn't help but smile at her partner's behavior, but also didn't want ANOTHER in-team fight.

Scarlet gave her a pouty face, but stopped her dance anyway. "Spoil sport." She stuck her tongue out.

"You yourself could take a lesson from Franky, both on the battlefield and off." Loy commented. Scarlet however, was no longer listening. Instead she was fixated on something happening nearby. A little ways away on an open, grassy area, a battle was going on. Scarlet began watching as three guys in metallic suits flew backwards, evidently having been smacked quite ferociously. Each of the three boys wore what appeared to be black turtleneck sweaters and pants, with armor over the top. Each suit was precisely the same, except for the color. The chest plate depicted metallic abs and pecs. The kind that would have girls like Thistle on them in seconds. Their shins were encased in sleek cocoons with minimal design, and layered plates dropped down from their shoulders to cover just over half of their biceps. Metal gloves protected their hands, and armored boots worked similarly for their feet. Each suit was one straight color: maroon, orange, and teal/aqua. Additionally, each of the boys wore an identically colored pair of goggles with gold lenses. Another boy stood against a nearby tree, also wearing their armor, only in cobalt. He, however, seemed more interested in watching the fight. And he wasn't the only one. A small crowd of ten or so people stood around enjoying the view. And after a quick look Scarlet knew why. The three boys were squaring off against a girl wearing no armor and carrying no weapon. Instead, she wore only a grey sweater beneath a black leather jacket with black jeans. She had short black hair that fell across her left eye, failing to mask the scar beneath it. Two silver earrings pierced her left ear. She watched the boys with smooth brown eyes, paying close attention to what they did.

"Is that the best you can do?" She asked plainly, sounding bored by their feebleness.

The aqua-armored boy growled and held up a sword to attack. Scarlet recognized him as the boy from Grimm Studies. _"Turk wasn't it?"_

Turk charged the girl, swinging his sword at her neck. She easily ducked the swing, delivering a clean uppercut in the process. Turk stumbled back from the impact. He only had time to think _"crap"_ before the dark-haired girl spun around and kicked him square in the gut, returning him to his teammate pile. He jumped back to his feet and once again prepared his blade.

"Do you know how to use that?" His maroon friend asked.

"My sword? Heck yeah I know how to use it! What's to understand about swish swish stab? It's a freaking sword dude, it's not a fighter jet!"

"Uhh, guys?" The orange one pointed shakily at a charging opponent. As the girl neared them, she folded her hands together and swung a wide arc, clubbing each of them upside the head.

"Hey batter batter! Swing Batter!" Scarlet called out in enjoyment.

"Litz! Duck!" The maroon fighter shouted in vain.

"Huh?" The orange one didn't register the warning in time, and received a second blow to the skull, knocking him flat to the ground. The girl then proceeded to kick him away. The cringe-worthy part though, was where she kicked him. A swift blow where one should never go.

"OWWWW!" Litz screamed while cupping his sore scrotum. The girl wasted no time in grabbing the other two by the collar, smacking their heads together, and throwing them to the side.

"I told you guys not to mess with Ebony." The cobalt warrior said calmly.

Turk crouched on the ground, holding his head in pain. "Shut up Chris."

Chris shrugged, enjoying the privilege of watching his point be made.

The girl, now identified as Ebony, turned and slowly walked away from the group of three. "Amateurs" she muttered as she left them.

And yet, it would seem as though the lesson was not over. The still as of yet unidentified maroon fighter rose to his feet and pulled out a rocket launcher. "Fire in the hole!" He shouted as a fire-happy hunk of metal soared out the end of the barrel. Ebony needed only to glance over her shoulder briefly to be prepared. She quickly stepped right and grabbed the rocket out of the air with her left hand. Allowing the explosive to continue it's momentum, she spun a hundred and eighty degrees and threw the flying bomb back to its owner. Time slowed down for the three warriors as the rocket soared toward them. Ever closer, ever looming. They had no time to move, not even time to think. Litz would later swear he saw a malicious smiley face in the small inferno trailing desperately after the rocket. The three felt hours pass in seconds as the tiny disaster neared them. And yet, the maroon one couldn't even finish the thought _"oops"_ before…

**BOOM**

The missile struck the maroon fighter right in the chest, sending him and his colleagues flying. Dazed and dizzied, they were done. Ebony on the other hand, was not. She bolted to them at blinding speeds. Scarlet blinked and swore she'd teleported. Without hesitation Ebony grabbed Litz and Turk by their faces, and with one solid push forced them to flip backwards and land on their stomachs.

"Oof!"

"Ow!"

For the maroon one though, a simple push was not sufficient enough. He had fired a rocket after all. And quite frankly, Ebony would've been insulted had she cared much at all. As if a rocket would ever be enough to take her down. So she lined up a special treat for him. With her left elbow she slammed him into the ground, while ripping his rocket launcher from his grasp. As he hit the ground, quite forcefully by the way, Ebony shifted his weapon into its hammer form and swung it golf-style. As it struck its mark, another rocket flew out, adding to the impact. The maroon fighter went flying who knows how far, he certainly wasn't coming back anytime soon.

Ebony watched him soar, casually dropping his own weapon on the ground. Chris unfolded his arms and walked from his comfortable spot on the tree to her side.

"Heh heh, I told you guys."

Turk stood up shakily, using a large rock for support. "Screw you dude, let's see you do better!"

"Right like I'm dumb enough to fight her." He turned to Litz "You may want to go fetch Barney. That flight looked pretty painful."

Litz shook his head, trying to regain his composure. "Meh, he'll be fine."

Chris smirked. "You're such a great partner."

"That was impressive!" Scarlet pounced up to Ebony, looking up at her with large eyes.

"Look at that Ebony, even Pyrrah thinks you're good." Chris chuckled.

"Actually, I'm Scarlet. I just look a bit like Pyrrah."

"And people never cease to notice." Thistle said in an annoyed tone as she and Loy joined their energetic partner.

"Very well done." Loy nodded to Ebony. She gave a half smile as a response, bored by easy prey but accepting the praise none-the-less. "What school did you study at?"

She huffed at the remark, saying nothing.

"Ebony isn't a huntress." Chris stepped up. "She's just very skilled. Honestly, I've never seen anyone beat her, and I doubt anyone can." He turned to the dark badass next to him. "Thanks for the show, see you tonight?"

"Probably." Ebony responded. She gave Chris a quick kiss, before walking over to a black motorbike and driving away.

"Quite the girlfriend you've got there." Thistle noted.

Turk quickly appeared at her side. "You're not bad yourself babe. How about a dinner with a studly swordsman?"

Thistle burst out laughing, unable to even remain standing. Next to her, Loy rolled his eyes. "Oh my gosh. You're as bad as Rusty."

As he said that, and Turk felt his normal dose of rejection and humiliation, Hazel suddenly appeared out of thin air next to them, a dazed maroon-clad warrior holding on to her weakly. "I found your friend."

Barney let go of her and shakily stood up. "Uh, thanks" His voice cracked as he spoke, indicating a nervousness in regards to the not-so-male gender.

Scarlet took note of this, and she was not one to pass up such an opportunity. She jumped in front of him, crouching at his feet. "Hey, you're cute." She said gleefully.

"Uh…I'm…uh…yeah…" His voice cracked with every other word. "Ahh!" He finally freaked out and backed away quickly. Scarlet winked at him, still smiling.

"Well, we'd better get going. Nice meeting you!" Hazel ended the meeting. In truth, they had nowhere they needed to be, but these guys clearly needed rest. Scarlet and Thistle were not going to help with that.

"Aww mom, can't I stay and play with the cute boys?" Scarlet asked with big puppy dog eyes.

Hazel walked over and patted her on the head. "Maybe next time." She added in an ear-scratch, much to Scarlet's enjoyment.

"I guess we'll have to entertain other cuties." As Thistle said that, she winked at Loy and used her wing to pull him along. He chuckled and allowed himself to be led.

"Nice meeting you." Hazel said again, as she and her partner followed the other two.

"Dude, you are such an idiot." Scarlet heard Turk say. She glanced back over her shoulder to see him giving Barney a pitiful look. It made her smile greatly.

– **ZFRR –**

"So, how'd it go?"

Rusty pondered for a moment. How best to explain everything to Zaffre? "Interesting." He finally said. He and Zaffre were walking through campus, having just met up after their respective activities.

"Oh great, do I want to know?"

"Ha ha. Yeah, you'll like this." Rusty laughed. "So there we were, pleasant date at the pizza place. Things were off to a good start."

"And by that you mean you creepily waited there, her having no idea, and when she got there she didn't immediately throw something at you?"

"It sounds so much less happy when you say it."

"Uh-huh, go on then."

"So she shows up with a couple of her friends. I step out and greet her. She was overjoyed to see me, but did a great job of containing herself."

"I bet."

"I drop this killer line, and she's all mine for a wonderful meal!"

"Translation: You begged for another chance and offered to buy her lunch, and she said yes only for the free food."

"Pretty much."

"And then what?"

"We get about two slices in, and I go to put my arm around her. Next thing I know, I've got two swords and a lance pointed at me. She's all like 'If you touch me again, I'll shove this so far up your ass you'll have to poop through your nose'." Rusty made his voice go unreasonably high for the mimic, causing Zaffre to laugh quietly. "To which I said 'whoa, at least buy me dinner first!' "

The last comment caused Zaffre to laugh loudly. That was Rusty through and through. He could only imagine how angry that girl must have gotten.

"But enough about me, how's your family doing?"

"Well. Noir just got started on a new book series, so she's insanely happy. Mom's going on a field trip this weekend with her photography class, and Dad finally got that promotion."

"Bout time, how long has he been considered for it?"

"Four months. His company finally got the budget for it."

"Sweet!"

"Yeah, we're pretty happy for him."

"Hey, what's that?"

The partners walked by radio broadcasting the news. "The police are left baffled, as a group of White Fang members stole a large shipment of dust, leaving no evidence at the scene. Three eyewitnesses and a brief security recording from a nearby coffee shop of their escape are all the police have to go off of. This marks the fourth event this month, with people growing more and more worried. In other news, excitement is stirring as preparations continue for Forjador City's Founder's Day Festival."

Zaffre sighed. "The White Fang have been getting more active recently. I'd be lying to say I'm not worried."

"Meh. They're a bunch of disgraceful wannabes. Posers wearing Grimm masks. I'm really not concerned about them."

"Your lack of concern is both inspiring and idiotic Rusty."

Rusty grinned. "I try man."

Zaffre suddenly stopped, something catching his attention. Peering ahead, he noticed a familiar couple of faces emerging from a building. "Isn't that Franky?"

Rusty also looked ahead, curious if his friend was right. "Sure looks like it. I thought he was meditating in Serenity Valley?"

"That's what he said."

"Well that's certainly record time for him."

"Wait, who's that with him?" Zaffre's jaw dropped as the details formed an image he knew. "That's Thistle!"

"No way!" Rusty eagerly confirmed his friend's statement. "They're totally hooking up!"

"Franky doesn't seem like the type though. And Thistle doesn't seem like his type."

"They're not hooking up." The sudden voice made Zaffre and Rusty jump. Behind them, Ryku had just appeared, completely silently. "Look at their behavior. No signs of romantic attraction, and no signs of embarrassment or fluster." While Ryku was normally the silent type, his hatred for drama was enough to break that streak.

"So what are they doing?" Asked Rusty, curious to see how long his sniper friend would talk.

Ryku shrugged. "Not our business."

"Which means now Rusty just has to know." Said Zaffre. Next to him, a fading outline was all that remained of Rusty. The rest of the monkey was now in a tree near the recently spotted duo, trying to listen in.

"Thanks for your help Franky."

"Anytime. And I'd say you're already improving greatly. A few more times, and you'll be well on your way to being a pro."

Despite what Ryku had said, Rusty snickered quietly at his interpretation of their comments.

"Well, you're a good teacher. Makes me wonder why you're not, you know…"

Franky smiled warmly. "I'm not the best choice, simple as that. He's better than me, even if he doesn't know it."

"Well, I think a few more of these sessions and my skill will blow him away."

Rusty had to stifle his laughter while trying not to fall off his perch.

"Don't hurt yourself Rusty!" Without even turning, Franky alerted Rusty of his lack of stealth.

"WHA?!" Completely not expecting that, Rusty lost his grip and came tumbling down.

"Ha ha, it's adorable how he thinks he's sneaky." Thistle mocked. "Anyways, thanks again Franky." She nodded in gratitude before turning to depart.

Franky walked over to the pile of Rusty on the ground and helped him up. "You know, it's not polite to eavesdrop."

"I had to know what was going on. You told us you were meditating."

Franky smiled. "I was. Then I got a message from Thistle asking to meet up. She wanted help with her history homework."

"Ahh." Rusty's shoulders drooped and his head slumped in disappointment. Truly, this was not the explanation he was hoping for.

"Sorry man, some things aren't a big juicy cover-up." Zaffre said as he and Ryku rejoined the mopey monkey.

"I know, but I wanted a scandalous smoothie."

Ryku rolled his eyes. _"Seriously? This idiot likes drama? Great, the rest of this is semester is going to be torture." _He sighed quietly beneath his bandana.

– **ZFRR – THSL –**

"Welcome class." Professor Viridian stood once more in front of his combat class in one of the mega battle rooms. "I hope you've all been training because today we begin full-team combat. Today's first match is between Teams CBLT and CRCT." He beckoned the eight students forward as he said this. "As we are just beginning, we shall avoid the more difficult settings for now. So, our first match shall take place in the Oceanside setting!" He pressed one of the buttons on the control panel, and the battle room began to shift. Small sand geysers sprayed forth from the ground and water flooded in along one wall. Small pulsers beneath the water created waves to lick at the feet of the teams. "Take your positions and begin!"

Team CBLT walked up to the water, allowing small splashes to cross their feet. Their opponents marched down to the far end of the room, also along the water edge. Turk took particular notice of one of them, a girl dressed as a geisha. "Hey baby! Wanna take a dip?" He called out.

She turned and looked at him. Without saying anything, she raised her hands and flipped out razor-edged fans. With a graceful spin she launched both of them in arced paths. The twin disk blades gave of a purple/pink glow as they raced for his neck. Turk managed to avoid both of them in place, leaning to the side to do so. The blades curved back around, returning to their owner.

"So is that a no?" Turk called back with a smile.

One of her teammates stepped forward, a blonde boy with his hair slicked back into a single spike. He wore a tight purple suit with the image of a dog on the front. Ironic too, since he had a cat's ears and tail. "I think so bud. But I'll entertain you!" Holding up his arms, twin gauntlets fired light-dust infused arrowheads.

Turk spun his sword in front of him to block them, not even flinching. "Sorry, I'm not into guys." The blade of his sword opened up, revealing a submachine gun. "Say cheese!" An army of lead stormed out of the gun as fast as they could. The purple cat ran to the side to avoid being hit. Turk smiled and gladly gave chase.

Nearby, Litz had found his own dance partner, a dark-haired boy in a gray warrior suit with a large buster sword. Not as large as Zaffre's, but large none-the-less. The dark warrior held his sword upright in front of him, smiley darkly. In a puff he sank into dark purple smoke. The smoky blob raced along the ground serpentine style towards Litz. The orange warrior held a large explosive launcher with a curved blade on the back at his side, firing vainly at the oncoming smoke. The blob stopped right between Litz's legs, and began to reform. Litz quickly stepped to the side and held his blade up just in time to block a buster swing. The dark one grinned again, releasing his sword with his right hand. Still locking blades with Litz, he spun around, slamming a spike brace on his right arm against Litz's side.

The blow knocked him to the ground, leaving him open. The dark warrior saw this as an easy opportunity, unfortunately one he never got to use. As he was about to strike, a swift hammer blow to the back sent him flying.

"I had it under control." Litz insisted, rising to his feet.

"Oh yeah. You totally had him." Barney replied sarcastically.

"Hey, he got one lucky blow in!"

"Worry about lucky blows later you two!" Turk called out amidst his combat against the purple cat. "Oh, and Bow-chikka-bow-wow!"

"Ugh." Litz rolled his eyes.

"A little help here!" Chris called out. He currently squared off against both the geisha girl along with a yellow, armorless samurai wielding twin katanas. Chris's own weapons were a blue flail and a blocky shield. He went back and forth between dueling the samurai, who was making good use of a speed semblance, and swatting away flaying razor fans.

Barney shifted his weapon into rocket form. "Fire in the hole!" A fiery missile soared out, landing near the feet of the three combatants. Chris managed to brace himself, but the other two were shaken by the impact.

"I got him." Litz flung his large blade through the air, the blunt end hitting the samurai square on. The yellow one fell flat on the ground, allowing Chris to focus on only one.

Using his semblance, Chris tracked her movements, predicting her attacks. Seeing an opening, he swung his flail, but found his swing coming short where it shouldn't have. _"Polarity semblance!"_ He glanced around at the other opponents, taking a quick moment to scan their movements. Quickly he was able to decrypt all their semblances and likely patterns of attack. "Got it!" He shouted. Evading back from the geisha, he tapped the side of his goggles, activating their data share function. With his teammates apprised of the new info, the outlook just got a whole lot better.

"Nice job Chris!" Turk called out, still battling the cat Faunus.

"Meh, it works." Said Litz.

Barney and Litz charged for the latter's weapon, only to find themselves blocked by a freshly de-smoked buster sword.

Chris glanced around and took note that with the exception of Turk and the cat, the warriors on both teams formed a line. "Guys! Failed kick!"

Turk shot him a disapproving glance. "Oh f**k you dude!" He already knew he was going to regret this. With a sigh, Turk stopped his combat to charge at Barney. The purple Faunus chased after him, firing arrowhead after arrowhead. _"Well, here goes nothing."_ Turk grabbed his sword with both hands and jumped into the air. As his ascent peaked, he turned his body horizontal and pointed himself straight like an arrow, his feet aimed at Barney. In response, Barney shifted his weapon into hammer form, and swung, using the hammer's jet propulsion for added might. The hammer and Turk's feet shared a brief hug, before Turk went flying, spinning in the air. He plowed through three of his opponents, the samurai being the only one to dodge him. On the other side of the downed bowling pins, Chris readied his weapon. As Turk neared him, Chris swung his flail above his head, catching his aqua compatriot. Chris continued his motion, now swinging Turk in a circle. With all the strength he could he launched the swordsman back. Not expecting the sudden return, the samurai was caught off-guard, and received two feet to the face.

As a final knock-out, Barney fired a rocket above the downed team. Chris combined his flail and shield, causing them to shift into a sniper. With quick aim, he fired a fire-dust round. The bullet hit the rocket, resulting in a nice explosion and shockwave. Suffice to say, Team CBLT was victorious.

"Well done CBLT." Professor Viridian called out, signifying the end of the battle. The room shifted back to its normal, plain state while the two teams recuperated. "Please return to your seats, and we shall move on to the next match." The eight students did as requested, while the onlookers eagerly awaited the next fight.

Professor Viridian gazed intently at the students. "Our next match shall be between Teams THSL and ZFRR. This match shall take place in the plains setting." As he spoke he pressed another button on the control panel. The battle room began its shift cycle. Small mounds rose from the floor, their baldness disappearing as grass began poking up. Blue washed over the ceiling. It began shining brightly as an image of the sun awoke and greeted the combatants warmly. "The match shall go until one team is unable to battle. Combatants! Take your positions!"

The two teams took up posts on opposite ends of the field, preparing themselves for battle. Each member of Team THSL drew their weapons. Scarlet crouched on all fours, Storm Cutter eagerly digging into the ground. Loy gripped Laevateinn tightly, fresh dose of dust feeding the hungry blade. Thistle spread her wings in preparation, Dark Falcon in its twin crossbow form. Hazel held the blades of Kiss of Athena in front of her, ready to do their part. All four teammates knew exactly what they planned to do.

Across the way, Team ZFRR also prepared themselves, but a bit less intensely. Zaffre held his blades casually to the side, allowing them to remain condensed for the time being. Rusty knelt down on one knee, aiming Metal Mischief over his shoulder. Franky simply stood peacefully in place, showing no indication of combat. Ryku held his sniper loosely, while activating his semblance.

"BEGIN!"

Thistle instantly took to the air and released her captive arrows. Ryku shot both down within seconds. Scarlet and Hazel charged the team directly, bullets and electricity flying forwards. Zaffre expanded his swords and embedded them in the ground, forming a barrier between the lethal army of lead and his team. As the partners continued to charge, Franky jumped over Zaffre and sprayed a line of gas in front of him. Rusty wasted no time in firing a shot to ignite the gas, sending Hazel and Scarlet flying back. Now it was Zaffre's turn to charge. As Scarlet regained herself, she grabbed the mock soil beneath her and rippled vibrations toward the oncoming swordsman. But the blue-haired boy leapt over them, blades held high to strike. Scarlet dodged back to avoid impalement and readied her claws. As Zaffre landed she once more charged him. However she suddenly tripped, as if one of her feet had become heavier for a split. She tumbled down, providing Zaffre with an easy strike window. He wasted no time in attacking, but found himself blocked by another opponent who suddenly appeared out of thin air.

"Don't you know it's impolite to strike a helpless girl?" asked Hazel, her blades against Zaffre's own.

"My apologies. How about a hug to make up for it?" Zaffre used his strength to slowly push Hazel's blades back, until her arms were completely outstretched to the sides. Unfortunately, he failed to notice a certain puppy-girl get back on her feet and charge his side.

**SLAM**

Scarlet collided with Zaffre, throwing him to the ground and knocking his blades away.

"Sorry, not really in a hugging mood right now." Taunted Hazel. Zaffre jumped to his feet and tried to defend himself, but without his weapons, he stood no chance against the two girls. A few kicks, and few punches, a little shock therapy, and Zaffre was lying flat on his back with one foot from each girl pinning him there. Hazel pointed one of her swords at Zaffre, the barrel of the gun in the blade ready to fire.

"Any last words?" Asked Scarlet.

Zaffre looked past the girls and grinned. "I guess I'm a bit rusty."

On cue, the blonde monkey landed a flying kick on Scarlet, throwing her forward. Without pause he whipped his currently spikeless weapon around and hit Hazel like a baseball. As she flew back, Rusty threw his hands in the air and cheered. "Home run!" He then turned to Zaffre and offered him a hand. "Partners from the beginning."

"Partners til the end." Zaffre finished, accepting the hand up.

"Sorry it took me so long. I had to help Ryku with the winged wonder."

Zaffre looked over to see that Ryku was indeed battling Thistle, while Franky squared off against Loy. He managed to keep the samurai from using his fire by surrounding them in combustible gas. Overall the battle was fairly spread out.

"Notice anything?" asked Zaffre.

"Yeah, Thistle looks hot when she fights."

Zaffre high-fived the back of Rusty's head. "No, I meant their fighting. They're distance fighters. Even most of their close range attacks require space. If we can get them close together, you and Franky should be able to knock them all out in one blow."

Rusty looked around the battlefield. "I like it, let's do it!"

Zaffre checked the scoreboard. His and Franky's auras were still at full capacity. Rusty and Ryku were each down to about half. Checking the other teams', he noticed that Thistle and Loy still had most of their aura at the ready, while Hazel and Scarlet were down noticeably from Rusty's attacks. _"We'll need to get them pretty close knit for this to work."_

Returning his focus to the battlefield, the blue-haired leader saw Hazel and Scarlet preparing to come in for another strike. "Rusty, get Hazel to keep teleporting. Make her use them up. I'll handle Scarlet."

Rusty took a football stance. "Ready, break!" He charged Hazel and began attacking wildly. Zaffre focused on Scarlet. He blocked her electricity blasts with his re-acquired blades, and dodged her pulses as best he could. Quickly he made himself appear to be concerned, and took off for his more distant teammates. Scarlet happily gave chase, gleefully firing again and again at Zaffre. He continued his defenses as he neared Ryku. Quickly Zaffre interlocked his blades and threw the mighty boomerang at Thistle.

"Look out!" Shouted Hazel, currently chasing Rusty in their direction. Thistle saw the massive spinning blade of death just in time, and swooped to avoid it.

"We need to re-group!" Zaffre shouted at Ryku. He paused briefly to catch his returning air slicer, using the halt to whisper into Ryku's ear. "Get them together. Gas blast." Ryku nodded his understanding, and followed Zaffre toward Franky, Thistle and Scarlet giving chase.

"I got them!" Shouted Scarlet.

"Back off! They're mine!" Retorted Thistle.

"_Their bickering is going to ensure our victory!"_ Zaffre thought.

Rusty put on an extra sprint and managed to catch up to his teammates. "I got her to teleport once, but that's it."

"It'll have to do." Zaffre replied as they grew ever closer to the duel in front of them.

Out of the corner of his eye, Loy saw the group of three approaching him. He quickly decided he didn't much like the idea of a four-on-one fight. "Cut them off!" He shouted in a desperate attempt to prevent his inevitable defeat. In response, Hazel used her final teleport to get between them and Loy. She combined her blades into staff form and fired twin barrel machine guns at the group. They stopped and Huddled behind Zaffre's blades.

"We need Franky!" Zaffre groaned.

"Here." Franky appeared in a swirl of green leaves. "I saw you guys approaching, and figured you must have a plan."

"Correctamundo sir!" Rusty confirmed.

"We need them together, then you hit them with the most combustible gas you have."

Franky smiled, figuring out Zaffre's plan.

"Alright, let's do this!" Zaffre lifted his blades, continuing to use them as a shield, and charged Hazel and Loy. Ryku covered their rear with sniper fire as Thistle and Scarlet closed in. Rapidly the spread of eight drew into one big cluster. Team ZFRR became enclosed by Team THSL. "NOW!" Zaffre's group started to move but suddenly stopped. First Rusty, then Zaffre, next Franky, and finally Ryku. In the span of about two seconds they stopped moving and just listened. A beautiful, gentle tune could be heard by the four boys, calming them. Slowly they lowered their weapons, completely ignorant of the battle they were in. Seeing this, Hazel and Scarlet paused their attack, royally confused. Each of them tried to figure out what was going on. Next to Hazel, Loy also enjoyed the soft music, blissfully unaware of his surroundings. The notes were soothing, pure, loving. How could anyone not listen? Murmurs of confusion came from the audience, as the music didn't carry out that far.

"What is that?" Asked Scarlet.

"I…don't know." Said Hazel.

The two turned to ask Thistle what she thought, and instantly they had their answer. Thistle was singing quietly. And for whatever reason, it had stopped the boys in their tracks. Hazel's eyes widened as she realized what it was. "It can't be a…"

Thistle smiled and nodded, confirming Hazel's suspicions. Scarlet, also picking up on it, found herself torn. On one hand, this made their victory incredibly easy. On the other, she was now quite jealous of her leader.

"We best take them out quickly. I don't know how long she can do that." Said Hazel.

"Ok."

Scarlet and Hazel moved right next to the group, readying the final blow. They drew their weapons back, but were completely unprepared for what happened next. Ryku suddenly shifted his weapon into glaive form and spun around, taking out Hazel and Scarlet together. As his swing ended, he shifted his weapon back into a sniper and fired at Thistle's throat. Her aura saved her from any real harm, but the bullet was still sufficient enough to stop her song. Without the tune to hold them, the other members of Team ZFRR began to come back to reality, though still a bit dazed and confused. Before they could completely regain themselves though, Thistle expanded her shield and flung it at them. Ryku ducked it, but the other three were knocked to the ground. Also freed, Loy managed to snap his focus back, and kick away the weapons of the downed three. Meanwhile Thistle pulled out her spear and began battling Ryku. While Ryku was a great sniper, his close combat skills left a lot to be desired. In a few short moments he was on the ground, pinned. This, plus the other three pinned by Loy's flaming sword, ended the match.

The speakers buzzed loudly, signally the defeat of Team ZFRR.

"Team THSL is the victor!" Professor Viridian announced through the mic. "With two teammates down, it's hardly a massacre. However, with the entire Team ZFRR pinned, it is still a victory."

Thistle and Loy sheathed their weapons and bowed to the crowd. Zaffre and his teammates were on their feet again quickly, and proceeded to help up Scarlet and Hazel.

"Anybody know what happened?" Zaffre asked his teammates.

"I have no idea." Said Franky while Rusty shrugged.

– **ZFRR –**

"A siren song?!"

Team ZFRR sat together for lunch in the main cafeteria. After collecting a much-needed refueler, the group had started discussing the previous battle. Zaffre, Rusty, and Franky were clueless as to what had transpired to cost them the battle, so Ryku decided to fill them in.

Ryku nodded his head at Zaffre. "Yes."

"That's incredible!" Franky awed. "It's not common to meet someone who can do that."

"Was it her semblance?"

"Must have been."

"Hold up a second!" Rusty interjected. "Why wasn't Dark and Brooding here affected?"

"Because of his own semblance." Answered Franky. Ryku nodded his agreement. "Digital Read let's your mind work like a computer. So siren calls become ineffective, regardless of where they come from."

"I heard the tune, and quickly worked out what it was. I calculated the best chance of success at playing possum."

"I think that is the most we've heard you say at one time man." Rusty mused.

"Almost worked too, if Ryku could've held her off a little longer." Said Zaffre. "Not that you did bad, but I think we could all stand a little more practice."

"Especially you. No offense dude, but without your swords you're kinda pathetic."

"It isn't wise to rely too much on your semblance." Advised Franky.

"It's not that, I'm just not that good at fighting with my hands. I prefer a blade, even a small one."

"We'll need to work on that." Rusty smirked.

"I'd be glad to help both of you." Said Franky with a warm smile. "I've trained for a long time at hand-to-hand combat. I'd be pleased to pass along my knowledge."

"I appreciate it." Zaffre responded. "All I know is, we're gonna need a good strategy to defeat them next time.

"Hey boys, how's it feel to stand up?" Thistle walked by with her team, and couldn't resist the urge to stop and gloat.

"Did you guys enjoy your nap earlier?" Scarlet also joined in.

"You're one to talk. I seem to recall looking down at you pretty much the entire time." Rusty retorted. "You looked so cute when you were helpless!"

"And you looked so cute the way you thought you had a chance against us!" Thistle replied. She and Scarlet laughed. Zaffre held in his growing anger.

"I think after a beating like that, you owe me dinner." The monkey requested.

"Oh please." Thistle flipped her hair. "I wouldn't be caught dead eating dinner with you!" She turned her back and walked away.

"Later boys!" Scarlet winked and followed her leader.

"I better make sure they don't start something." Loy said before also following them.

"I'm sorry about them. You guys did very well." Hazel apologized.

"It's fine." Said Zaffre, his internal rage subsiding. "You beat us, fair and square."

"I know, but they shouldn't be acting like that. I know Loy doesn't approve either. He told Thistle off for some of the things she said earlier."

"Meh, we're good. Zaffy and me have dealt with far worse. Heck, that's how we met!" Rusty grinned, completely unfazed by the taunts. "Trust me, we're fine."

"I'm glad to hear." Hazel smiled. "May I join you?"

"Absolutely." Said Zaffre, offering her a seat.

"Thanks." Hazel sat down with them, happy they bore her no ill will. "I'm glad you guys aren't letting them get to you."

The blonde monkey shrugged. "Why bother?"

"Agreed." Said Franky. "They have a right to be proud. Even if they should be more respectful, I won't hold it against them for being happy."

"Man you have got to be the most forgiving guy I've ever met." Said Zaffre.

Franky smiled. "Life's too short for grudges."

Franky's words hit something special with Ryku, something hidden deep. Distressed by the thought, he stood up and began walking away.

"Where you going man?" Asked Zaffre.

Ryku turned his head back partially, displaying no emotion as per usual. "Tired." He said plainly. Without another word, he walked away.

"I hope he's alright." Said Hazel.

"Don't worry about Ryku. I don't think anything can get to him." Rusty insisted.

"He's not a robot Rusty."

"He's also not a rusty robot."

The other three groaned while Zaffre threw a napkin wad at Rusty. The grinning monkey dodged the shot, and then proceeded to high-five himself.

"Hey guys, how's it going?"

The group turned to see a familiar face in a green dress, holding a book with both hands in front of her, standing behind Rusty.

"Oh hey, Deedee right?" Asked Zaffre.

She smiled, pushing her hair behind her ear nervously. "Yeah. And you're Zaffre, is that correct?"

"Well I certainly hope so, otherwise I've lied to a lot of people."

Deedee laughed at his joke. "Haha. Well it's nice to meet you. Rusty told me a lot about you guys. He said you all look up to him."

Zaffre cocked an eyebrow at his Faunus friend. "Oh did he?"

"I think he may have exaggerated a few details." Hazel added with a smile. "I'm Hazel by the way." She extended her hand in welcome. "It's nice to meet you."

Semi-nervously, Deedee accepted the offered shake. "Likewise."

"And I'm Franky." The woodsman also extended his hand.

"Hey back off girly boy! I saw her first!" Rusty pointed at Franky as he uttered his friendly warning.

Franky held his hands up. "Whoa, calm down Rusty. I'm just saying hi."

"Don't worry, you're definitely the cutest one here." Deedee insisted nervously while blushing. Her comment caused Rusty to beam his biggest, brightest beam yet as his head rose into the clouds.

"C'mon now, don't lie to make him feel good." Zaffre joked.

"Lie?" Deedee's smile fell at the accusation. Big puppy-dog eyes welded up with the potential for some refreshing salty water.

"No no, he was joking! It's okay. We don't think you're lying." Hazel hastily reassured the nervous girl.

"_Well, she seems pretty innocent."_ Zaffre thought. He looked at his friend, slightly concerned. _"I hope Rusty doesn't take advantage of her. I know he would never intentionally do anything bad to any girl, but he doesn't always realize what his actions cause."_

"Here, why don't you sit down with us?" Hazel offered.

"Umm, sure. If it's okay." Deedee said, somewhat unsure.

"It's completely okay!" Rusty kicked out the seat next to him to prove it.

"Thanks." Deedee took the seat and sat down with them. "So what are you guys talking about?"

Zaffre shrugged. "Lethal songs, metallic snipers, the usual."

Deedee chuckled innocently at his joke.

"AH! SPIDER!" A girl a few tables down shrieked. The outburst caused Deedee to scream and hastily grab onto Rusty. The monkey blushed and grinned blissfully.

Turning to the source, the friends saw a group of laughing boys holding a rubber spider in a girl's face.

"Ok then." Said Zaffre somewhat hesitantly.

Hazel chuckled lightly. "You sure jumped at that. Her scream scare you? Heh heh."

"Har har. I'll admit I wasn't expecting that. I just really don't like spiders."

"Well you seem to be handling it better than her." Hazel gestured at the dark-haired girl still clinging onto Rusty, much to his delight.

"Heh, yeah that's true."

Deedee slowly let go of the monkey boy, nervously parting her hair as she did. "S-sorry. Spiders freak me out."

"It's all good. I'm here for you." Rusty reached his arm around her. Deedee smiled and scooched in towards him.

Zaffre watched the two for a minute before deciding to give them "privacy". "Well, I think I'll head out. See you in History class Rusty?"

Rusty nodded, though keeping his gaze on Deedee.

Hazel, also observing Rusty's moment, followed Zaffre's lead. "I better get back to my team. See you all later!"

Zaffre turned to Franky. The woodsman smiled at the situation, before also taking his departure. "I'll come with you Zaffre. See you in class Rusty."

The three left the table, leaving Rusty alone with his quarry.

– **ZFRR –**

After leaving Rusty to his endeavors, the other three members of team ZFRR headed to their lockers to deposit their morning books. They would have done so before dinner, but Rusty refused to stop whining until they ate. As Zaffre closed his locker, he chuckled to himself.

"What's so amusing?" Asked Franky curiously.

"Heh. I was just thinking about Rusty's little stunt from the first week."

Franky smiled. "Ah yes, that was certainly entertaining."

"What was entertaining?" A voice asked. The two turned around to see a boy with cobalt hair, wearing a similarly colored shirt beneath a black leather jacket with black sunglasses standing there. Next to him stood three other boys. One of whom Zaffre recognized from Grimm studies.

"A friend of ours, when he discovered his rocket locker, set it to launch with himself in it." Zaffre answered. "If I remember correctly, he ended up in a bakery in town?"

Franky nodded. "Yeah, he was held by the cops for about an hour afterwards."

"You should've seen the look on his face though."

"Nice." One of the boys commented. He was the same teal-haired guy Zaffre had watched battle a Beowulf their first day.

"Yep, good times!" Rusty called out from a little ways down.

"Hey man! I thought you were entertaining Deedee?" Zaffre asked.

"Yeah, she had to go meet up with her team."

"Hm." Zaffre turned back to face the four newcomers. "By the way, nice fight in class today."

"That? Oh please it was nothing!" The teal-haired one said.

"Good fight yourselves. You seemed like you had them right up until the end there." The cobalt one commented.

"Yeah well, they had an unexpected trick up their sleeves. I'm Zaffre by the way. This is Franky, Ryku, and Rusty." Zaffre gestured at each of his teammates in turn.

"Sup. I'm Chris; this is Turk, Barney, and Litzkrieg. We call him Litz." The Cobalt-haired boy pointed at the teal one, the maroon one, and the orange one respectively.

"I gotta say, that was a pretty sweet move you guys pulled at the end." Said Franky. "How'd you come up with it?"

"A practice spar." Litz answered, "Turk tried to hit Barney with a flying kick, but he responded with his hammer. The result was similar, but much less refined."

"Just as painful though. "Turk grumbled.

"Yeah, it looked it." Said Rusty.

"I'm curious how you guys were so coordinated with so little communication." Zaffre commented.

Chris pulled out his goggles. "These have a special trait called mind-meld. They allow us to see what each other see. Not like a video camera, but as if using each other's eyes. Which comes in handy if you have the Digital Read semblance like I do."

Rusty's ears perked up at the sound of familiarity. "No way! Ryku has that semblance too!"

"Oh?" Chris faced his fellow reader. "Not many have our gift. Gotta say, I didn't expect to meet anyone else with it here."

"Same." Ryku responded.

"So just what did they do to throw off your fight?" Chris asked. He wanted to make sure his team was ready for whatever this "unexpected trick" was.

"Oh well their lea-" Zaffre slapped his hand over Rusty's mouth to shut him up.

"What? Scared to tell us?" Teased Turk.

Zaffre smiled. "No, but I think it will better benefit your team if you don't know what's coming."

"Ah man that's bullshit!"

"No, he's right." Said Chris. "We won't always get a heads-up, we need to be ready for anything they might have in store."

"I say we put it to a vote." Commented Litz.

"Yeah, I gotta agree with him on this. I'd rather know what we're fighting beforehand." Barney seconded.

"Sorry guys. You'll just have to wait til it's your turn." Zaffre said.

"I hate suspense." Litz grumbled.

– **ZFRR – THSL –**

Teams ZFRR and THSL sat in another lecture hall. At the front stood a tall man with short, neat brown hair. His torso was layered in blues, with a light blue undershirt, a medium blue button shirt, and a blue/gray old-school military coat. When his coat shifted, two suspenders could be seen extending from his belt up over his shoulder. He wore dark gray pants, and brown boots. A small revolver hung in a holster at his side. A thick, brown arm brace rested on his left wrist. He stood in front of a large billboard, which was covered in war photos.

"…In the Human/Faunus War, who can tell me what advantage the Faunus had in the Battle at Fort Castle?"

Franky raised his hand. "Night vision."

"Correct. Indeed, many Faunus possess exemplary animal traits. One of the most common is night vision. Other common traits include enhanced strength, speed, endurance, hearing, and sense of smell. These enhanced abilities led to many advantages for the Faunus, but also many disadvantages. The war between humans and Faunus led to a very in-depth study of the biology of both sides, meant for exploiting weaknesses. Unfortunately, the tests that were conducted were not done so under the most…friendly circumstances. Despite these tests, there were those like General Lagune who found themselves unfamiliar with the workings of their opponent, and as such, failed in their endeavors. Now, can anyone tell me of any other contributing factors to the war's outcome?"

One student in the back raised his hand. "The dragon Faunus." A few students laughed at his answer.

"Ah yes, the tales of the dragon Faunus. I'm sure you've all heard the stories of how ferocious he was and how he led the Faunus to victory time and time again. I hate to tell you this but it's a myth. There is no such thing as a dragon Faunus."

Hazel raised her hand. "But sir, there is a recorded case of an existing dragon Faunus during the war."

"Ah, you refer to the one the tales are based off of. This is a common misconception. What was recorded there was actually a rare case of mixed Faunus blood. There are rare, but not unheard of cases, where the offspring of two different types of Faunus inherits traits from both parents. Normally one set of traits overrules the other, but not always. The recorded case of a dragon Faunus was one such case. The Faunus in question was not a dragon, but merely resembled one due to mixed blood. Unicorns, dragons, chupacabras, they're all fictional."

"But he was in the war?" Asked Zaffre.

"Indeed he was. However he did not survive long. He induced a great amount of fear in people, and fear can make even good people do terrible things. By the end of his first recorded battle, he was slain."

"_Well, that's a cheery thought."_ Zaffre pondered sarcastically.

"Now then, if you will all turn to page one oh five…" The professor continued on with his lecture.

– **ZFRR – THSL –**

"Well, that was interesting." Zaffre commented as he and his team left the classroom.

"Since when are you into history?" Rusty asked.

"Since never. But I thought the mixed-blood Faunus thing was pretty cool."

"Yeah that would be sweet!"

"Heck, I'm surprised you don't have any relatives like that. There're so many different types of Faunus in your family."

Franky raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Really? Like what? If you don't mind my asking."

Rusty grinned. "Well, my uncle's a bear, my mother's a panther, my dad and sister are Koalas, and my brother's a bull."

Franky whistled in amazement. "Wow, who'd you inherit your traits from?"

Rusty shrugged. "I dunno. I think my great grandfather or something. We do have a lot of different types."

"Although I don't think you have any avian or aquatic Faunus." Zaffre interjected. "At least, not in your immediate family."

"Well, not at the moment." Rusty said, winking at Thistle as she walked by.

"Hahaha, oh please!" The eagle Faunus laughed. "Like I'd ever want a weakling like you!"

Zaffre began to get annoyed at her cockiness. Ever since their fight, she'd been looking at them like dummy targets, nothing more. "Just because you had one trick up your sleeve does not make you better then us."

"Huh." She scoffed. "I'd kick your butt anytime and anywhere!"

Zaffre began to get quite furious now, her attitude getting deep under his skin. He began to reach back for one of his swords, only to have his hand caught by Franky. "Calm down man, it's not worth it."

Zaffre took a deep breath, and relaxed, letting his hand fall back to his side. He closed his eyes for a moment, letting the anger leave him. When he opened them again, he was much more calm.

"Alright, you think you can beat us again? I challenge you to a team rematch in class."

Thistle held back another laugh. "Alright spikey, you're on! I promise to make it quick." She left with her team, leaving a confused Rusty behind.

"Dude, why not just challenge her outside right now? We could take her!"

"We could, but that wouldn't do anything." Zaffre said calmly.

"What do you mean?"

"For Thistle, it's not just beating us, it's beating us publicly and making us look weak." Franky answered for him. "If we beat her now, it will change nothing. But in class, she will want to do it again. Our victory there will make her realize that we're not just some stepping stones."

"It's not about revenge or humiliation, it's about making a stand to show we're capable." Added Zaffre. "And it will teach her that one battle does not win the war. A lesson that will help her improve her own team."

"We don't need to prove ourselves to her, but she does need respect for her fellow huntsmen." Franky finished.

Zaffre nodded. "Exactly."

"Damn man." Rusty said in awe, "And here you thought you'd be a bad leader."

Zaffre chuckled. "Thanks man."

"Well then, we have a stop to make." Said Franky.

Zaffre nodded, and the group departed for Professor Viridian's office. As they walked, Ryku thought about what he'd just seen. It impressed him that Zaffre was able to let go of his anger like that. Rather than act on it, he had taken the time to relax and make a clear decision. _"And I know why."_ It was his friends. Ryku had noticed that in the presence of Rusty, Zaffre's confidence went up. And in the presence of Franky, he was more cool-headed. It was a concept that Ryku found fascinating, not that you'd ever know by looking at him.

After a short walk, the team reached the professor's office. Zaffre walked up and knocked on the door.

"I hope he goes for this." Rusty said. "He doesn't seem the type to care about revenge."

Professor Viridian opened the door, and looked sternly at the students. "What do you need?"

Zaffre cleared his throat. "We would like a rematch against team THSL in class."

Viridian stared at the students silently for a moment, going over the thought in his head. "Very well." He finally said. "In one week, you shall have a rematch."

"Thank you sir." Said Franky. Professor Viridian nodded, and retreated back into his office, closing the door behind him.

"Looks like we're good to go!" Cheered Rusty.

"Now we just need a strategy." Franky pointed out.

Zaffre grinned. "Actually, I've been thinking about that. We need to do something they won't expect. Something they'd underestimate. Something that we could tell them exactly what we're doing, and they wouldn't believe us."

Franky raised an eyebrow, curious where he was going with this. "Like what?"

Zaffre's grin grew. "I have just the thing."

"Well then, I guess we've got some training to do!" Rusty said eagerly.

– **ZFRR – THSL –**

Hazel sighed. "Why are we out here?"

Thistle rolled her eyes. "We've been challenged to a rematch, and I intend to make sure we cream them!"

"Then why haven't we done anything about it for the last five days?" Asked Loy.

Thistle simply ignored the question, continuing to walk through the woods.

"I see."

"C'mon, it'll be fun!" Said Scarlet. The pup's enthusiasm made Hazel smile.

The team continued walking through the woods, looking for a good spot. "So why are we training out here?" Asked Loy.

Thistle, disappointed he didn't understand, explained. "Because we want to make sure team ZFRR doesn't see us train. We're less likely to be spotted out here."

Loy rolled his eyes. This could have been just as easily accomplished in a training room. "Yeah, but you never know what's out here."

"Hey, you guys hear that?" Scarlet suddenly said, her ears perking up.

The others also stopped and listened. There was a faint trace of music in the air.

"We're pretty far from campus. Who'd be out here?" Asked Hazel.

Always the curious sort, Scarlet took off in the direction it was coming from.

"Scarlet wait!" Called out Thistle. "We're supposed to be training!"

"It'll only take a minute!" She called back.

"We may as well take a look." Added Hazel.

Thistle looked at Loy, hoping for him to back her up. "What do you think?"

"I'm kinda curious to know too." He responded.

Thistle sighed. "Okay, but only for a minute."

The group chased after Scarlet. When they finally caught up to her, she was crouching, peering through a gap between a couple trees.

"Well, what is it?" Asked Hazel.

"Shhhh!" Said Scarlet hastily. She turned to face her teammates with a huge smile on her face. "You guys are going to want to see this."

The three joined Scarlet to see what the sound was.

"Oh. My. Gosh." Said Thistle. She had to restrain herself from laughing. Out in the middle of a clearing on the other side of the tree, was team ZFRR. A boom box sat on the edge of the clearing, blasting what sounded like Celtic music. Franky was dancing with his staff, spinning it around in various patterns. Zaffre and Rusty were facing each other, evidently having some kind of dance off. They repeatedly lurched to the sides, jumped, and ducked in various dance patterns. Even Ryku was taking part, spinning and jabbing his glaive randomly. When Rusty and Zaffre linked their left arms together and started skipping in a circle, Thistle just couldn't hold it in anymore. She burst out laughing, and fell through the gap into the clearing. Team ZFRR stopped their various dances in surprise at the sight of the fallen angel. Rusty picked up a remote and paused the boom box. The rest of team THSL stepped out of their hiding spot.

"Nice dance." Remarked Hazel, laughing slightly.

"Why thank you." Said Zaffre. He and Rusty bowed.

Thistle managed to stand up and compose herself somewhat. "What were you guys doing?"

"Training." Replied Zaffre.

Thistle started laughing again. "Haha, training for what, a dance competition?"

Rusty smirked. "No, for our upcoming match against you guys."

"You plan to dance us to death?" Asked Scarlet.

"Something like that." Zaffre smiled.

"Forgive me but I fail to see how this will help you beat us." Said Loy.

"You'd be surprised." Chipped in Franky. "You can learn a lot without fighting."

"Well that was definitely some adorable training." Said Thistle, managing to calm down some.

"What song was that?" Asked Hazel.

"Celtic Dawn by Jack Hallam." Said Zaffre. "One of my personal favorites."

"So I noticed." She replied smiling.

"You guys looked dorky." Said Scarlet. "Though cute dorks."

Zaffre grinned. "Hey, we can dance if we want to."

Rusty grinned equally. "We can leave your friends behind." He raised the remote toward the boom box.

"Because your friends don't dance." Said Zaffre. He looked over at Rusty. "And if they don't dance."

"Well they're no friends of mine." Rusty finished, hitting play on the remote. Safety dance started playing. The two of them began dancing once more, enjoying the moment.

"You guys are true dorks." Said Thistle.

Rusty held out his hand. "Come join in!" He said.

Thistle crossed her arms. "I'm good thanks."

Rusty shrugged. "Wuss." He turned to Scarlet. "How about you pretty miss?"

Scarlet giggled and took his hand. Rusty pulled her out into the middle and began dancing around with her. Zaffre extended his hand toward Hazel.

"Care to dance?" He asked.

Hazel also giggled a little. "Sure." She said, taking his hand.

The two of them joined Rusty and Scarlet in the middle of the clearing. Franky also stepped out with them.

"Can you believe this?" Asked Thistle, turning towards Loy. "What are you doing?" She looked at him with surprise.

Loy put his chest piece on the ground next to the rest of his armor. He looked at Thistle, shrugged, and went out to join the dance fest. Thistle remained on the sidelines, annoyed. _"We're supposed to be training."_ She thought tersely.

Ryku also stood back and watched the others. He tolerated dancing for training, but it wasn't his idea of fun. However, under his bandana and so invisible to the others, he cracked a light smile.

"So how'd you guys find this place?" Hazel asked, taking notice of how beautiful the landscape was.

Zaffre grinned. "Dunno, we just kinda did. It kinda became our own little spot."

"Well thank you for sharing with us." She smiled.

"Anytime!"

"_This is so ridiculous. We are going to whoop them so hard."_ Thought Thistle.

– **ZFRR – THSL –**

Professor Viridian stood on a stage in front of his class. The day of the rematch had arrived, and both teams were pumped at the thought of victory. "Today Team ZFRR shall be having a rematch against their previous victors, Team THSL! Now, as the battle rooms are undergoing maintenance presently, this shall be a simple battle with no obstacles. You all know the rules, so I present the challengers!" He gestured to the side. Team ZFRR stood in a line along the left side of the stage. From the back of the stage to the front they stood: Franky, Rusty, Zaffre, and finally Ryku.

"And their opponents!"

Team THSL walked onto the other side of the stage, pulling out their weapons. Scarlet stood farthest back, followed by Hazel, Thistle, and Loy. They braced themselves for a fight. On the other side, Team ZFRR seemed almost unaware that they were about to fight. Franky held his staff in hand, but the other members of the team had their weapons tucked away. Ryku had his arms folded, Zaffre had his hands loosely in his pockets, and Rusty seemed fascinated by something on his arm.

Professor Viridian stepped off stage. "Ready, begin!"

Team THSL charged forward, Team ZFRR barely moved. Thistle spread her wings and took to the air. She peaked her flight at about twenty feet, and hovered above the scene. Zaffre looked up and charged toward her. She smiled and prepared to sing. However, rather than lunge at her or throw something, Zaffre suddenly stopped and pointed to his left with a smile. Thistle turned to see Franky with his arm outstretched. Before she could react, a gas pellet landed and popped in her mouth, preventing her captivating vocals. She started coughing hysterically, though still maintaining flight. On the stage, Zaffre had turned his attention toward Hazel, who was charging at him. She pulled out her blades and swung at him. Zaffre simple ducked. She tried a vertical swing, but he leaned left. She swung both her arms in a low X cut, but he jumped. She continued to swing at him, but he dodged each and every one, never moving from his spot, never pulling out his weapon. Glancing over briefly, she noticed Scarlet was having the same problem with Rusty. And then it dawned on her. _"This is exactly what they were doing during their dance-off in the woods."_

To her right, Loy was attacking Ryku. Unlike his teammates, Ryku had in fact pulled out his weapon, and was blocking each of Loy's attacks with it. Loy tried and tried, but he could not get a blow past Ryku's glaive. Loy should have dominated Ryku in close combat, but Ryku was also using his dance moves, and they seemed to be working. In the air, Thistle had recovered, but was still unable to sing. Instead, she was firing arrow after arrow at Franky, who blocked them by spinning his staff in various patterns.

"Thistle!" Hazel called out. "Look at what they're doing!"

Thistle quickly glanced around the battlefield. Her eyes widened as she realized what was going on. "They're dancing!" She croaked weakly.

"We can dance if we want to." Zaffre grinned.

"We can leave your friends behind!" Rusty called out from behind her. He had managed to move his fight so that Scarlet and Hazel were standing back-to-back, only a few feet apart.

"Because your friends don't dance." Franky added with a smile. "And if they don't dance…"

"Well they're no friends of mine." Ryku finished, much to Team THSL's surprise.

As soon as he said that, Zaffre and Rusty each dodged one final attack and jumped over their respective opponents. In midair they linked their left arms, turning their momentum into a spin. After they rotated ninety degrees, they each thrust out their right legs, shoving their partner's opponent onto the ground.

Across the stage, Ryku stopped his defense only tactic, and was now adding jabs with his glaive in between Loy's swings. Each jab hit a weak spot in Loy's armor, and after five jabs, Loy was on the ground. Franky, still battling Thistle, thrust his staff downwards, propelling him up. He flipped in the air and sprayed Thistle with a blast of gas. Rusty pulled out his weapon for the first time all fight and fired at the cloud, igniting the gas. The explosion threw Thistle to the ground, hard. Zaffre used his strength to throw Hazel and Scarlet next to her, and Franky finished the three of them off with a blast of knockout gas. The three members of Team ZFRR turned to see Ryku with his sniper pointed at the face of a downed Loy.

"Nicely done!" Zaffre smiled at his mostly silent friend.

Ryku nodded in acknowledgement, keeping his opponent pinned by his sniper.

Professor Viridian Stepped onto the stage. "And that's match! Well done Team ZFRR!"

The four boys sheathed their weapons and bowed. This was greeted by a loud round of applause.

"Good job guys!" Zaffre cheered at his beaming teammates.

– **THSL –**

Team THSL sat in the locker room, recuperating from the defeat. "They beat us by dancing." Thistle sighed in disbelief. "How the hell did they beat us by dancing?!"

Near her, Scarlet was doing her own little dance in place, trying also to figure out how they got fighting moves from it.

"It's impressive really." Said Loy.

"Impressive?! We got our asses served!" Their leader said angrily.

"Calm down Thistle. They did well. We were far too cocky."

Thistle redirected her glare at Hazel. "What?"

Loy put his hand on her shoulder. "She's right. Your semblance is powerful, but we can't use it as a crutch. Heck, without it, there's a good chance we never would've won the first fight."

"Oh c'mon! We had them creamed!"

Loy shook his head. "Being the best isn't the most important thing you know."

"Oh, I suppose you think you'd make a better leader?"

"No, not at all. You did very well with your semblance. You didn't show boat it to everyone, which means we keep the element of surprise."

Thistle slapped his hand away. "Don't patronize me."

"Relax Thistle, it's just one defeat." Hazel looked to Scarlet for support, but found the young coyote crouching on the ground scratching her back with her leg_. "Sometimes I wonder about that girl."_

Thistle growled and stormed out. Hazel started to walk after her, but was stopped by Loy. "Let her cool down. This is something she needs to work through herself." Seeing her worried expression he added, "Don't worry, she's smarter and stronger than she let's on."

Hazel smiled weakly. "You're a good partner to have so much faith in her. I just hope you're right."

Author's note: Bacon, eggs, milk, apples.

Wait, sorry. That was my grocery note. Heh. Anyway, that ends my fifth chapter. This one gave some trouble in a couple spots, but overall I feel like it turned out well. I'm particularly interested to know what you all think of team CBLT. If you hadn't guessed, they're based off the Reds and Blues. Chris is Church, Turk is Tucker, Barney is Simmons, and Litz is Grif. I'd like to know how well you thought I wrote them. Now I won't be portraying them exactly like in RvB; I'll change certain character traits to fit my story better. For example, Chris will be more mellow than Church. And all of them will care more than their RvB counterparts, simply because if they didn't, they wouldn't have become huntsmen. So let me know what you think, and I'll see you in chapter six, where we will learn more about Scarlet and Ryku. Also, Happy Halloween! (Or close enough).


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